When I first met Ningbo Lisi Group Co. Ltd. - China's largest exporter of plastic housewares products - at a trade show in Chicago three years ago, they had ambitions about the North American market and were expanding their factories in Zhejiang province.

Then the recession hit. At the 2009 International Housewares Show in Chicago, Chinese exhibitors saw a significant decline of business. A 50-60 drop of orders was considered normal, Lisi said.

But the company is no longer dependent on manufacturing or export. Instead, it is thriving with retail and commercial real state businesses at its headquarters, according to Lisi founder and President Li Lixin, who was featured in a long profile article on the Ningbo Daily Web site.

Lisi now owns six department stores and 34 chain supermarket stores throughout Zhejiang province, the article said.

"You can't wait until the crisis to think about diversification," Li said. He started buying retail businesses in 2005, and continues to invest in commercial estates. His rationale was simple. His goal was to go beyond conventional manufacturing. Since his strength was selling skills, not in other high growth fields such as high-tech, retail was a fit.

But manufacturing will always remain an important part of the company's portfolio. "Manufacturing is not that profitable, but it's the lifeblood. No matter how much money you make in other sectors, you should never give up on the lifeblood," the article described a common mentality among Chinese entrepreneurs.

Seemingly self-contradictory, I believe the saying reflects Chinese business community's firm faith in the "real economy" -- the physical side of the economy dealing with goods, services and resources, as opposed to the financial side -- and especially industrial enterprises.

They don't miss investment opportunities that arise with China's policy-driven, speculative markets. But they also prefer to keep their stakes in solid manufacturing.

Lisi said its current revenue breakdown between manufacturing and the service sector is about half and half.

Cash flow from more profitable new businesses seems to help with Lisi's molding business. The company has invested in 2010 more than 6 million yuan ($884,382) on advanced molds, and launches new products at a fast speed - averaging three to four per day. The focus of his plastics housewares business, Li said, is on creating new distribution channels and phasing out low-added-value products.

A Sept. 15 accident at a Sinopec plastics factory in Zibo, Shandong province killed five workers. The victims include one plastics factory worker and four construction workers - including the project manager -- from a construction company also under the Sinopec umbrella.

According to a spokesman from Sinopec Qilu Petrochemicals Co. Ltd., which owns the plastics factory, a burst of nitrogen gas from a pressurized tank killed the workers -- two died on site, three more later in the hospital. In addition, one worker sustained a minor injury.

While the incident is under further investigation, the company said preliminary findings point to work performed against regulation.

"Some screws on the gas container might have become loose, or workers failed to turn down the gas pressure before fixing the screws," the factory's deputy director Zhao Yanbin told the Xinhua news agency.

The plastic factory contracted with Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical Construction Co. Ltd. to replace a heat-exchange unit, state enterprise Sinopec said. It noted that this particular construction subsidiary branched out in a restructuring and now has private and collective ownership.

Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical also was forced to shut down one furnace at an 800,000-metric-ton-per-year ethylene plant on August 26 due to a small fire caused by oil leak.