From the Earth up to the cloud

A Shanxi-based IT company got its start by helping to modernize the province's accident-plagued coal industry. Now it's eyeing bigger things, reports Li Yang in Taiyuan.

When Li Wei set off for the United States to study, he probably never thought he'd eventually find his future in the dirty and dangerous coal mines of Shanxi province.

After finishing college in China in 1994, he headed to the US. There, he went to graduate school, became a market strategist and met Taiwan-born Calvin Teng, who would become his business partner.