In the lab of Rongxin Lighting, a company located in Zhongshan's Henglan Town, an LED spectrum analyzer is scanning a chip. "This advanced packaging technique boosts heat resistance by 32% and reduces light decay by 27%," says Dennis Choi, general manager of the company.

Over the past decade, the Macao-born young entrepreneur has transformed a 500-square-meter LED packaging workshop into a tech enterprise with 20+ patents. His team's 15-millimeter-thin LED streetlights are now illuminating rural Africa.

A former sports education graduate from Macao Polytechnic University, Choi left teaching in 2013 and came to Zhongshan's Henglan to dive into the lighting industry. 

"We've built a full vertical chain that covers LED packaging, light source production, metal stamping, surface coating, finished product assembly and aging test," Choi says, gesturing to automated screw machines in the workshop. "Eighty percent of our equipment is automated, creating a closed-loop ecosystem of 'Zhongshan Smart Manufacturing'."

Rongxin Lighting's breakthrough came at a trade fair in Kenya in 2023, where the company's ultra-slim streetlight outperformed bulkier 75mm rivals. Priced under 100 US dollars, the product now powers luminous efficacy monitoring stations in off-grid areas across 23 countries.