Rob Thirlby is tackled during England's simple win over China

Joe Lydon's men struggled in the first half but pulled away after the break, running in seven tries.

Geoff Appleford and Ben Gollings grabbed two touchdowns each with others from new boy Neil Baxter, Peter Richards and Pat Sanderson.

Scotland also had a fine start with a 26-0 win over Georgia while Italy lost 10-5 to the United States.

Although Lydon was happy with England's victory, he believes there is room for improvement.

"We weren't as clinical as we would have liked but it wasn't too bad for a first-up performance," said Lydon.

"There's always the chance of slipping on a banana skin in a tournament like this so we just wanted to make sure that we got the first game out of the way without any problems."

England now face Scotland and Georgia on Saturday.

Meanwhile New Zealand, who currently lead the overall Sevens standings after four events, began their campaign with a 48-0 win over Japan.

The All Blacks rested sevens specialist Eric Rush but still managed to score eight tries with Sosene Anesi crossing twice.

"When it's as wet as this, ball retention is very important and we did that very well," said coach Gordon Tietjens.

In other games, Fiji beat Portugal 35-0 while South Africa romped to a 63-0 victory over Thailand.