BEIJING - Forget peanuts and Cracker Jacks. Try snack noodles and yogourt.

The grand ol' pastime was a brand new novelty at the Wukesong Baseball Field on Wednesday as Canada whipped China 10-0 in the preliminary-round opener for both teams.

Baseball is still fairly new to China, a country that loves its table tennis, badminton and gymnastics. The 7,105 fans in attendance for the early afternoon game appeared to enjoy the proceedings, even if they seemed a little unsure of what was happening.

Fans seemed stunned to see bats shatter, amazed that foul balls were up for grabs and vigorously cheered after the most casual outs were recorded.

After three scoreless innings, jaws dropped across the park when Scott Thorman of Cambridge, Ont., crushed a pitch from starter Tao Bu deep over the right-field wall. The crowd gasped in amazement at the tape-measure shot that disappeared into the whitish-grey haze that hung in the air beyond the outfield fence.

Thorman enjoyed the moment. The right-handed cleanup hitter dropped his bat, slowly walked a few steps in Barry Bonds-like fashion before breaking into his home run trot.

That sent a few fans down to the handful of concession stands around the facility. For those willing to brave long lineups, a large beer could be purchased for the Canadian equivalent of about one dollar.

Standards like popcorn and ice cream were also available. There was an odd-looking pastry item simply dubbed "cake," and the closest thing to a hot dog was a product called "sausage," which one fan said tasted more like processed ham wrapped in bread than a traditional ballpark frank. Condiments like ketchup, mustard and relish were nowhere to be found.

The stands were less than two-thirds full and almost all of the prime seats behind home plate -- many of them reserved for "Olympic Family" members -- sat empty. Canadian manager Terry Puhl said his team was ready regardless of the atmosphere.

"It makes absolutely no difference to us if there's one person or 30,000 people out there, I don't care," Puhl said. "We're going to kick their tail if we get a chance."

Pitcher Chris Begg of Uxbridge, Ont., struck out nine over six-plus innings for the win. Relievers Tim Burton of Ottawa and Rheal Cormier of Moncton, N.B., completed the eight-hit shutout.

Centre-fielder Adam Stern of London, Ont., scored twice and knocked in a pair as Canada finished with 10 hits on the day. Victoria's Mike Saunders chipped in with a solo homer.

"I think any time you put up 10 runs in a game it's a good one," Stern said. "It went as expected."

The pockets of Canadian fans in attendance could easily be picked out during the seventh-inning stretch when they stood up to sing the traditional baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

This seemed like a strange exercise to the locals. After the first verse was complete, dozens of perplexed Chinese fans got out of their seats -- not to stretch -- but rather take pictures of the red-and-white clad fans who were waving Canadian flags and belting out the tune.

There were other odd moments:

  • When the grounds crew raked the infield dirt, one worker used what looked like a dishwashing scrub brush to clean off the bases.

  • After the third inning, Olympic mascots Beibei and Nini walked down the right-field line to wave to the crowd. They seemed oblivious to the fact that a baseball game was being played. First baseman Yubing Jia and Canadian first-base coach David Corrente had to run over to get them to leave the field so the fourth inning could begin.

  • Volunteers walked down the foul lines on occasion with warning signs reminding fans, "Do not catch balls with bare hands."

  • Cheerleaders that would look more at home at a university football game came out after the sixth inning. Wearing white shirts and bright orange pants, they performed flips and cartwheels to a high-speed dance music mix.

  • Words like "Fantastic!" were often splashed on the outfield screen after base hits, similar to the one-word bursts of descriptive terms used in campy Batman TV episodes from the 1960's.

With Canada up by double digits, the two-hour 41-minute game was called after eight innings.

"For these Chinese guys, this is a whole new experience," said China coach Steven Ontiveros. "Hopefully we (can) get the jitters out of the way and play like we are capable of playing. Because we are way better than this, trust me on that."

While the field was about a 30-minute drive from the main Olympic drag, there was no escaping the heat, humidity and smog.

"I really noticed it more when I came in between innings and sat down on the bench," Begg said. "You try to catch your breath and you can't do it. There's no air there to suck into your lungs."

Puhl said he thought some of the Chinese were nervous playing an international game in their home country on such a big stage.

"They didn't really know what was going to take place," Puhl said. "We've been around international baseball and we're coming here with one thing in mind and that's to expose any team that we play.

"We have a lot of honour in this game but we're here to win ball games and that's what we did today."

Canada will get a stiff test on Thursday against defending champion Cuba, one of the powerhouse squads in the eight-team tournament along with the United States and Japan. The Canadians are hoping for a podium appearance here after coming up short at the 2004 Games in Athens, when they finished a disappointing fourth.