The walls of the factory at 39 Shentie Road hold the heat of a century-old ambition. Built entirely from narrow, hard, machine-made red bricks, the structure embodies the exact product it was designed to create. In 1923, industrialist Du Zhongyuan returned from studying ceramics in Japan. He raised funds to build the Zhaoxin Kiln Industry just north of the Mukden city wall at Xiao'ertaizi. This site became Northeast China's first mechanized ceramics factory. The kilns roared to life, baking red bricks that soon shaped the expanding campus of Northeastern University.

By 1927, Du expanded operations, importing foreign machinery to produce high-quality porcelain. Zhang Xueliang backed the enterprise with an investment of 120,000 silver dollars. The factory's output surged, driving Japanese ceramics out of the regional market by 1929. The physical remnants tell a story of sudden interruption. The 1931 Mukden Incident forced Du to flee, silencing the kilns.

The industrial anatomy survives. A vertical smelting furnace constructed from refractory bricks stands near an oxidized iron chimney. Nearby, glaze-refining crucibles remain coated in thick, hardened layers of color—the fossilized labor of workers who once fed the fires.

A few miles away at 92 Huigong Street, the company’s former office building, known as the "Du Mansion," anchors the enterprise's administrative history. The V-shaped, south-facing structure covers 2,077 square meters. Its gray-white cement facade encloses a Chinese-Western architectural hybrid. Inside, original wooden staircases and balconies carry the echoes of 1920s commerce. A pavilion-style spire crowns the roof, replacing an earlier tower lost to fire.

Today, the office building rests directly above the Shenyang Metro Line 2 Financial Center Station, preserved in situ for future museum visitors. In 2023, a centennial exhibition displayed over 170 artifacts, including porcelain plates stamped with patriotic slogans. These objects, alongside the rusted chimney and the hard red bricks, map the intersection of clay, fire, and national survival.