I just taught this to my 3 year old grandaughter and we sing it like this:

Once in China there lived a great man His name was Chickarapa Chiko Pan He had long hair and his feet were small And this little man he couldn't walk at all.

Chickarapa Chiko contickalero nanapeenan Cat da, Ooh da, es ay diddypaw diddypaw Chinese Coo Hoo Hoo.

It works for us and she loves it. (some words can only be spelled phonetically)