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 a minor settlement on the Fen River for most of China’s history. It developed around a Tang-era Buddhistmonastery that was destroyed in 1391. (Nanhai was separately established at Broken Bowls Point in 1271 by two brothers fleeing the Mongolinvasion of the north.) The Foshan Ancestral Temple, a Taoisttemple to the Northern God (Beidi) that was rebuilt in 1372, became the new focus of the community by the 15th century. By the early Ming, Foshan had grown into one of the four great markets in China, primarily on the strength of its local ceramics but also on account of its metalwork. Under the Qing, its harbor on the Fen River was limited to ships of a thousand tons’ burden but it remained well connected with Guangdong’s other ports. By the 19th century, it was considered the “Birmingham of China”, with its steel industry responsible for the consumption of the majority of the province’s iron production. It was connected to Guangzhou and Sanshui by rail in the early 20th century. The Ancestral Temple was converted into the Foshan Municipal Museum upon the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
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 Revolutionaryfolderol — 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.
