"Very happy, the first half was an outstanding attacking performance," he said after the match.

"We played to our strengths using Mark Viduka with a lot of runners off him in [Marco] Bresciano, (Mile) Sterjovski and Brett Holman, and it worked a treat...and with a bit more luck we could have been up by four or five."

Although the first half was a walk over for the visitors, the Chinese put up a spirited fight in the final 45, but the Socceroos stood firm and kept their clean sheet.

Arnold added: "Second half, it was a little bit disappointing that we slackened off a bit but when you look at the travel factor, the humidity here, it was normal that the players are going to fatigue.

"It's been a fantastic dress rehearsal of what we've got to do, working through to the World Cup qualifiers with the travel, the heat, different culture, different surroundings.

"It's a test of the mental character of the players to come into a totally different environment and perform like the way they did. I'm looking at the big picture as well, and that's 2010 even though the Asian Cup is very, very important."

Rookie 'Roos Shane Stefanutto and Carl Valeri earned their first caps for Australia on Saturday, and it was a recall for previously out of favour players Nicky Carle and Brett Holman.

He said: "Promoting some younger players like we're doing and some fringe players, as long as they have a core of four or five senior players in these type of games, these boys are getting the experience, I'm delighted.

"But I was very proud of the four older guys, with Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Bresciano and Mark Viduka.

"I asked them to take on a leadership role for this game and help the debutants through the game and the younger players and they did a fantastic job."