This is not true. I was in Beijing around then and never met a single person who spoke English if they hadn't learned it for professional reasons (they worked in tourism, international business, etc.).
It could not have been further from a bilingual society.
I suppose you probably were visiting some university districts/CBDs where people likely to have received higher education. Elsewhere, aside from basic "hello"/"how are you", locals in general are not able to communicate in English.
Not sure which part you were in, but this is just not true in my experience. I've been to Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and some others, and Mandarin really is a must if you want to even have a chance of communicating. I can't imagine how I'd function here if I only had English.
I've not yet been to Shanghai, and while I would expect the English-speaking percentage to be a bit higher, it would still likely only be in the single-digits by my estimation.
