The roots of many of the tens of thousands of high-technology companies in Beijing's Haidian Science Park lie in university laboratories or researchers' ventures. But many others are traditional State-owned enterprises that have found new lives through restructuring.

Tongda Refractory Technologies Co Ltd is one of these companies.

Its origins lie in the Beijing Ceramics Factory, which was formed in 1958. Affiliated with Beijing's Building Material Bureau, it was a typical product of Mao's era, with a mission to produce building material for the capital's socialist construction.