Foshan_

Ancestral halls and lion dance troupes animate Foshan's canalside streets in the Pearl River Delta, a manufacturing powerhouse blending Cantonese traditions with gleaming subways. Digital nomads tap into Guangzhou's airport proximity and buzzing maker spaces for hardware tinkering. Humid subtropical days invite dim sum crawls amid the world's furniture capital.

The city is part of the western side of the Pearl River Delta megalopolis, a conurbation housing 86,100,000 inhabitants, making it the biggest urban area of the world. Foshan means "Buddha Mountain" and, despite the more famous present-day statue of Guanyin (or Kwanyin) on Mount Xiqiao, who isn't a Buddha, it refers to a smaller hill near the centre of town where three bronze sculptures of Buddha were discovered in AD 628. The town grew up around a monastery founded nearby that was destroyed in 1391. History Pre-20th century Foshan remained a minor settlement on the Fen River for most of China's history. The Foshan Ancestral Temple, a Taoist temple to the Northern God (Beidi) that was rebuilt in 1372, became the new focus of the community by the 15th century.