Honestly, mostly not. Across China, 87.72% of people spoke Mandarin in 2025, and Mandarin is what is used here. English is rare outside Chengdu's hotels and a few young people in the cities; in the villages and around the monasteries, almost nobody speaks it. My own languages are English, Japanese and German — and I translate the whole way when I take guests out.
How far does Mandarin get you?
Almost everywhere. The figure above is national, and in the towns and along the roads I drive it is simply the language of everyday life — shops, tickets, guesthouses, small talk. In the Tibetan areas I use Mandarin with a little Tibetan: enough to greet people properly and to hold the short exchanges that matter. That combination is how conversation works here.
The figure comes from China's Ministry of Education: 87.72% of the population spoke Mandarin in 2025, announced at the National Putonghua Promotion Week in September 2026.
Will English work?
Only in patches. Hotels in Chengdu and some city businesses cope with it. Out on the plateau — Tagong, Litang, the village guesthouses, the monasteries — I would not count on it, and I would not send a guest somewhere hoping a stranger speaks English. This is not unfriendliness; it is simply that English has never been needed there.
What I do about it
I guide in English and I translate throughout: ordering food, checking in, buying tickets, asking whether photography is allowed in a hall, talking to monks, and talking to the families whose houses we sleep in. None of that is a side service I add on. It is the reason a trip out here works at all for someone who does not speak Chinese.
Questions I get on this one
Do I need to learn any Chinese before I come?
Is a translation app enough on its own?
You speak Japanese and German as well?
Will locals speak Tibetan to me?
From what I see on every trip, plus the national figure above. Related: getting there · paying for things · all essentials