Foshan is a famous cultural city with a long history behind it. As early as the Qin and Han Dynasties, a lot of farmers and fishermen were living there, it became so clustered that people named it “Jihua town”. In the second year of Zhengguan of the Tang Dynasty (628 A.D.), a stone-carved object was made to commemorate three pieces of Buddhas which had been unearthed in Tapo, a hillside within the city.
The city got its name Foshan soon afterwards. During the years of Tang-Song Dynasty handicraft, trade and culture developed at such great speed that merchants from all over the country came to Foshan. It became so prosperous that together with Hankou town in Hubei Province, Jingde Town in Jiangxi Province, and Zhuxian Town in He'nan Province it became one of the Four Noted Towns of China. As the largest trade center for the gathering and delivering of goods, it was together Beijing, Suzhou and Hankou named as one of the one of the Four Essential Cities in China. Even today it enjoys great reputation with the likes of Guang Gauze Downtown, South China Pottery Plaza, and the Place of Origin for Southern China's Medicinal Herbs, being known all over the word.
Several civil changes took place after People's Republic of China was founded. On January 12th, 1951 Foshan was normalized to be Foshan City. In 1958, the Foshan Special Region was established which had Foshan City, Jiangmen, and Shiqi under its administration as well as another thirteen county towns including Zhongshan. In 1970, the Foshan Special Region changed to Foshan District, and it administrated fourteen counties. At the present, Foshan can be divided into five component parts, they are Buddhism, Nanhai, Shunde, Sanshui and Gaoming.
The whole city has a surface of 381,364 square kilometers with a population of 3,358,500 people, while the central city covers 153,69 square kilometers with a population of 800,800 people. Foshan is a well-known hometown of overseas Chinese.
During the past several years, its economy has witnessed amazing progress and it has been recognized as one of the top ten cities to enjoy an advanced economy. Its investment environment reached the forty standards set during a national assessment. People's living standards have increased and are well underway to reaching the Xiaokang level (comparatively well-off). In addition, it has achieved a number of honorable titles such as the National City of Great Interest, National Hygienic City and the Double-Owned Model City. The above are its distinct features that make Foshan a tourist attraction.
