Theme Week China – Foshan
Wednesday, 24 July 2019 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Asia / AsienCategory/Kategorie: General Reading Time: 6 minutes Foshan, formerly romanized as Fatshan, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers 3,848.49 km² (1,485.91 sq mi) and has an urban population around 7.1 million. It forms part of the western side of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, which includes Guangzhou to the east and northeast and Zhongshan to the southeast. Foshan is regarded as the home of the Cantonese versions of Chinese opera, kung fu and lion dance. Foshan lies on the Fen River in the estuaries making up the west side of the Pearl River Delta. Guangzhou lies 25 kilometers (16 mi) to the northeast, Zhongshan to the southeast, Jiangmen to the south, Qingyuan to the west, and Zhaoqing to the west.
Foshan is close to Guangzhou and considers its link with Guangzhou to be very important. As such, it is part of the Pearl River Delta and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area metropolis, centered on Guangzhou. Foshan has been well known for its ceramics since the Ming, although it was forced to shutter its production during the Cultural Revolution. Foshan had a ¥8.01 trillion gross domestic product in 2015, raising its per capita GDP past ¥10,000. Shunde District in particular has a high standard of living, with its 3,000+ electronical appliance factories responsible for more than half of the world’s air conditioners and refrigerators. Foshan now has more than 30 towns specialized in particular industries, including furniture, machinery, and beverages. Foshan Hi-Tech Development Zone was founded in 1992. Its total planned area is 7.55 km² (2.92 sq mi). The zone is very close to the national highway G325 as well as Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. The major industries in the zone including automobile assembly, biotechnology and chemicals processing.
Foshan remained primarily focused on ceramic and steel production until the 1950s, when it became an urbanizing political center. On 26 June 1951 it left Nanhai County to become a separate county-level city and, in 1954, it was made the seat of the prefectural government. Its economy stagnated through the Cultural Revolution—traditional ceramic ware was forbidden and its workshops were turned to producing Maoist and Revolutionary folderol — but it continued to grow, reaching 300,000 people by the 1970s, making it the province’s second city after Guangzhou. As early as 1973, however, its agriculture and consumer industries were permitted to become an export production base and a modern highway linked it to Guangzhou soon after; this permitted its party secretary Tong Mengqing and mayor Yu Fei to take full advantage when Deng Xiaoping introduced his Opening Up policies after the fall of the Gang of Four. In 1983, Foshan was promoted to a prefecture-level city with its former core becoming the new Chancheng District, but lost the southwestern half of its former territory to Jiangmen. On 8 December 2002, Shunde and Nanhai joined its urban core as a full district. Shunde has gone on to obtain an unusual autonomous status in 2009, placing its oversight in the hands of the provincial government rather than the prefectural one.
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Read more on Foshan, LonelyPlanet.com – Foshan, TravelChinaGuide.com – Foshan, ChinaDiscover.net – Foshan Culture, Cantonese cuisine, Wikivoyage Foshan and Wikipedia Foshan. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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