EurosportMaltese Falcon Drago, who was included on the main tour for 2012-13 as a wildcard despite ending last season 65th in the world rankings - he is now ranked 70th - went down 6-3 to Liam Highfield.
Six-times world champion Steve Davis joins qualifying in Monday's second round, while Jimmy White and Liang Wenbo among others begin in round three on Tuesday and the likes of Peter Ebdon, Ali Carter and Marco Fu come straight into the fourth and final round on Wednesday.
The tournament proper, a new ranking event, takes place from October 28 to November 4 in Chengdu, China.
It features the highest level of prize money of any tournament in China, with £125,000 going to the winner.
First-round results
Paul Davison 6-4 Fraser Patrick
Michael Wasley 6-4 Jamie O'Neill
Li Yan 5-6 Zhang Anda
Tian Pengfei 6-3 Joel Walker
Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon 4-6 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Luca Brecel w/o Mohamed Khairy
Sam Baird 6-1 Ben Judge
Pankaj Advani 6-1 Craig Steadman
Kurt Maflin 6-5 Gareth Allen
Robbie Williams 6-3 Scott Donaldson
Aditya Mehta 6-3 Michael Leslie
Tony Drago 3-6 Liam Highfield
Ian Burns 6-4 Sean O'Sullivan
Chen Zhe 1-6 Martin O'Donnell
Passakorn Suwannawat 2-6 Daniel Wells
Dechawat Poomjaeng 6-3 David Grace
Monday's second-round matches
James Wattana v Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Peter Lines v Paul Davison
Liu Chuang v Michael Wasley
Jimmy Robertson v Luca Brecel
David Gilbert v Sam Baird
Steve Davis v Pankaj Advani
Alfie Burden v Zhang Anda
Rod Lawler v Kurt Maflin
Andy Hicks v Robbie Williams
Mike Dunn v Aditya Mehta
Adam Duffy v Liam Highfield
Cao Yupeng v Tian Pengfei
Yu De Lu v Ian Burns
Anthony McGill v Martin O'Donnell
Barry Pinches v Daniel Wells
Mark Joyce v Dechawat Poomjaeng
Players to join round three
Michael White
Ben Woollaston
Jamie Jones
Anthony Hamilton
Rory McLeod
Alan McManus
Gerard Greene
Jack Lisowski
Mark King
Jimmy White
Liang Wenbo
Matthew Selt
Jamie Burnett
Nigel Bond
Xiao Guodong
Dave Harold
Players to join round four
Barry Hawkins
Dominic Dale
Ken Doherty
Ryan Day
Andrew Higginson
Marco Fu
Mark Davis
Fergal O'Brien
Jamie Cope
Robert Milkins
Tom Ford
Marcus Campbell
Peter Ebdon
Joe Perry
Allister Carter
