Alexander Levy continued his recent good form as he made the early running at the scene of his first European Tour win at the Shenzhen International.
The Frenchman won the Volvo China Open at Genzon Golf Club in 2014 and his comfort with the layout was clearly showing as he reached six under after 12 holes on Thursday.
Levy held the first round lead at Valderrama last week before eventually slipping to a share of 14th and finished second at the ISPS HANDA Perth International in February as he searches for a third European Tour win.
The 25 year old opened with a birdie on the tenth and followed that with another gain on the 13th before he went eagle-birdie on the 17th and 18th to turn in 31.
Another birdie followed on the first as he opened up a one-shot lead over Scotland's Richie Ramsay and China's Jia Zhang.
Ramsay turned in 34 after birdies on the first and fourth but really came alive on the back nine as he registered further gains on the tenth, 11th and 13th.
Zhang got off to a brilliant start with birdies on the second, third, fourth and sixth but dropped a shot on the seventh before he picked up shots on the ninth and 11th.
There was then a two-shot gap to English duo Lee Slattery and Tommy Fleetwood - who has never finished outside the top three on this course - China's Jin Zhang and Frenchman Romain Wattel.
They were one shot clear of a group of ten players at two under on a congested leaderboard.
