"The result of the game was really not important," said Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti after Wednesday's 2-0 defeat to Chinese league champions Shanghai Shenhua.

"It was good fun," he added.

"Our biggest goal during this tour of China was to understand China, and let China understand us," Ancelotti was quoted as saying by the Oriental Morning Post.

Milan arrived in Shanghai on the back of a shock 2-1 loss to Hong Kong league runners-up Kitchee Sunday.

Although the Italian giants were missing many of their international stars, including Filippo Inzaghi, Clarence Seedorf and striker Andrei Shevchenko, the team still earned 600,000 dollars for its appearance in Shanghai.

By comparison, Shenhua made only around 48,000 dollars, China's national sports broadsheet Titan Sports reported.

It was not known what they were paid in Hong Kong.

Sponsors, who usually depend on ticket sales to win back revenues, almost certainly failed to recoup their investment given just 5,000 fans attended the game in Shanghai and about 17,000 in Hong Kong.

In Shanghai on Wednesday night, Qu Shenqing opened the scoring in the 52nd minute and shellshocked Milan were left reeling two minutes later when Sun Ji caught them napping to put Shenhua two up.

In Hong Kong on Sunday, Indonesian striker Rochi Putiray did the damage with two second-half goals to down the Italian side.

The Chinese market is proving increasingly attractive for the world's top clubs, keen to cash in on its untapped market.