This Day, That Year

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

In October 1980, Chen Chunxian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, founded a technological development service department as part of the Beijing Society of Plasma Physics in the capital's Zhongguancun tech hub, making it the area's first civilian-run scientific and technological institution of its kind.

The area has since developed into a hub for high-tech entrepreneurs and innovators, amid measures by the authorities to build a national center of innovation. Close to China's top universities and national academies, Beijing's so-called Silicon Valley emerged as a small market for electronic components and devices for technicians and researchers.