Managing in China - Friendlies

I felt like managing somewhere I'd never tried before in any FM, and for some reason known only to my subconcious, I picked China. I started the season in December 08, and took over a team called Wuxi Zhongbang in the first division. I did the usual: set up some tactics, buy a few players, play the pre-arranged friendlies. After doing the last of those, I was all ready for the season to start, when I noticed something: the season wasn't going to start for several months. The last of my friendlies was in mid-January. I had a cup game in mid-March, and the league begins in early April. By then, any fitness I got from the friendlies will be long gone.

Now, I know I can always book my own friendlies - indeed I'm going to have to - but it seems really odd to me that the pre-arranged ones end over 2 months before the league starts. It would be more logical to have them in Feburary and March instead of January.

Is this normal or is it a bug?

Who were the friendlies against? Regional teams, or European teams?

Who were the friendlies against? Regional teams, or European teams?

Other Chinese teams.

Asian Champions League in all likelihood, which I'm pretty sure falls largely in that March-April period. Still a bit odd though.

Asian Champions League in all likelihood, which I'm pretty sure falls largely in that March-April period. Still a bit odd though.

Guess that might be the case. There's a chance of them being involved in the ACL so all Chinese clubs are set to have their friendlies early so there's no chance of problems. Not really relavent when I'm a mid-table second-tier team though