Overview of Foshan City

Foshan City, located in the mid-south of Guangdong Province and the hinterland of the Pearl River Delta area, is one of the most economically vibrant cities in China. The city enjoys a unique geographical location, with Guangzhou to the east, Hong Kong and Macau to the south. Covering a total area of 3798 km2, Foshan governs five districts, namely, Chancheng, Nanhai, Shunde, Gaoming and Sanshui. A population of 7.35 million inhabitants reside in the city.

(By Lin Danyun)

Foshan, "founded in Jin Dynasty and named in Tang Dynasty", is a city famous for her rich historical and cultural heritages. The long history of Foshan nourished its unique traditional Lingnan culture. Foshan is reputed as the capital of ceramics, capital of Canton Opera, hometown of Martial arts, hometown of patent Chinese medicine in southern China, center of foundry in the South, hometown of folk arts, and city of gourmet food.

(By Yang Yaotong)                                                                 (By Liang Bin)

As one of major cities to have adopted the reform and opening-up policy, Foshan has maintained a rapid economic growth in recent years and become one of the cities with the most rapid economic development and strongest comprehensive strength. In 2018, Foshan's GDP totaled 993.5 billion RMB (about 144 billion USD), an increase of 6.3%. The industrial output was recorded at 2.5 trillion RMB (about 362 billion USD), ranking the 6th in the country. Foshan is home to Midea and Country Garden, two Fortune 500 companies valued at over 100 billion RMB, and more than 20 home-grown companies valued at over 10 billion RMB.

After years of development, Foshan has shaped its industrial complex integrated with ten major sectors including electric appliances, electrostatic-optical motors, information technologies, ceramics, textile and garment, metal processing and products, plastics, chemical and pharmacy, food and beverage, and household commodities.

Foshan is a inclusive and open-minded city and boasts 15 friendship cities in the world. Foshan and Townsville, in north Queensland, Australia, established friendship city relations in 2006. Since then, mutual exchanges such as official delegation visits, teachers and students exchange visits, music concerts, photo exhibitions and artists exchanges have been conducted to improve mutual understanding and friendship.

(By Huo Guangliang)