a separate county-level city and, in 1954, it was made the seat of the prefectural government. Its economy stagnated as a result of 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. Since 2020 a Japanese-themed street in Foshan has become a hit with young people unable to travel abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 100m-long road called Ichiban Street has been outfitted by a local property developer to resemble famous commercial streets in Japan, complete with a sakura tree, an icon of Japan. The “exotic” street is attracting young people from nearby cities like Guangzhou, Zhongshan and Zhuhai as the younger Chinese generation likes many things about Japanese culture and design. Geography Foshan lies on the Fen River in the estuaries making up the west side of the Pearl River Delta. Guangzhou lies to the northeast, Zhongshan to the southeast, Jiangmen to the south, Qingyuan to the north, and Zhaoqing to the west. Climate Foshan experiences a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa). Economy Foshan has been well known for its ceramics since the Ming dynasty, although it was forced to cease production during the Cultural Revolution. Foshan had a ¥0.8 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