China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo will not compete at the NHK Trophy in Nagoya, Japan, the third stop on the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix. 
 
Instead, fellow Chinese Pang Qing and Tong Jian, who were the silver medallists at Skate Canada, will try to claim the title for China.

The four-day Grand Prix Japan Stop starts Thursday.

Pang Qing and Tong Jian will face archrivals like Russia's Petrovo and Tikhonov, who were the silver medallists at the 2004 European Championship and Poland's Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek.

No Chinese skater will compete in the women's singles.

(CRI November 4, 2004)