Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola downplayed Monday's renewal of hostilities with Jose Mourinho, scoffing at the suggestion he would not shake his Manchester United counterpart's hand.

China is the unlikely setting for the rivals' first meeting since the 2013 Super Cup between Bayern Munich and Chelsea, with Beijing's imposing Bird's Nest Stadium playing host to the first-ever Manchester derby on foreign soil.

The pair endured a fractious relationship when managing Barcelona and Real Madrid, respectively, with the subject of that rivalry quickly arising on the eve of the International Champions Cup encounter.

Guardiola was quick to bat away questions over his relationship with Mourinho, though, and sees no reason why there will be anything but a "really friendly game" in the Chinese capital.

"We are polite guys," Guardiola said, looking surprised to be asked whether he would shake Mourinho's hand.

"Why not? Why should we not shake hands? No reason why. He will want to win, I will want to win. That's all. I saw the last game against Borussia Dortmund (when United lost 4-1) and that's all (apart from) a little bit against Wigan.

"It's too early to know how they will be. I am pretty sure they will be stronger than last year. Of course with this manager and with the good players they already had - and I am sure they will buy new players - they will be a strong team."

It is the pitch in Beijing rather than old foe Mourinho and United that is of most concern to Guardiola.

Heavy rainfall over the past week has damaged the playing surface at the Bird's Nest, meaning City and United agreed to use the nearby Olympic Sports Centre in a bid to prevent damaging the pitch further.

An International Champions Cup spokesperson said the surface would be "fine", but both Guardiola and Mourinho are concerned.

"We didn't see the pitch but there is a lot of water in the last days so we understand it's not in a good condition, but okay we're going to adapt and adjust," the City boss said.

"It's our second game of preparation. The most important thing is that the players are not going to be injured."

United's pre-season trip to China is ending chaotically, with organisation as bad as the weather meaning Mourinho just wants to get his players home in one piece. Preparations for today's match have been beset with problems from United's end, given the flight issues en route to the Chinese capital and organisational problems upon arrival.

The weather and the state of the playing surface has added to Mourinho's sense of irritation. "The pitch and the conditions of my players are more important than results in pre-season," said the Portuguese. "It's not a problem for me to lose matches in pre-season. It's a problem for me, bad conditions for my players to train and bad conditions for my players to play.

"So if you ask me my objective for the match tomorrow I only have one: take the players home safe without any kind of injury. We cannot just run away and disappear and not play, so we have to play and try to be lucky. Normally when you say lucky, you say lucky because you want a good result. The result I want tomorrow is to go home without injuries and that is the luck I want."

Mourinho's frustration at the unfolding situation was visible as he stood pitchside surrounded by hundreds of journalists, a number of whom were wearing United shirts and looking for autographs.

United, like City, trained at the Olympic Sports Centre to preserve the nearby Bird's Nest pitch, but the increased numbers of accredited media saw him forced outside as the tiny, sweltering press conference room was deemed unsuitable.

It was the latest disruption of a trip impacted by bad weather en route from Shanghai to Beijing on Saturday evening, forcing one of United's two planes to take an unscheduled stop in Tianjin.

"We were supposed to fly in two different planes and share half of us in one plane and half of us in a second one," Mourinho said.

"The ones in the first plane were lucky because the plane was great and we land safely and we were in the hotel in good conditions to have dinner.

"The second group was unlucky. The plane was not good, they had a storm and had to land in Tianjin.

"They had to be in Tianjin for about a couple of hours, they sought to come by bus then they got the plane and they arrived in the hotel to have dinner at one o'clock in the morning. The group is fine. The people is good. The players are good guys. They had a smile on their faces which is good."