Abstract: Three thousand three hundred and ninety four questionnaires were received respectively from Shanghai, Xi’an, Chengdu and Changchun during 1992～1995. Data about destination choice behavior of the respondents in the 4 cities were collected and dealed with computer aided techniques. Traveling behaviors discussed in this paper include both tourists and leisurers in the population of urban areas. An average visited rate was used to demonstrate distance delay of destination utilities by urban residents, which consisted of that of the first five favorite destinations in urban area (0～15 km from origin), suburban area (15 km～50 km), and belts around city with radii of 50 km～500 km, 500 km～1500 km and that more than 1500 km. Destinations situated in urban area have a mean visited rate of 91.2%, suburban area has 59.5%, belt around city with radii of 50 km～500 km reaches 52.1%, 500 km～1500 km reacheds 29.9%, and that more than 1500 km 14.9%. Taking the total market fragmentation of a city as 100, more than 80 of it distributed within a distance less than 500 km from the city. Total destination choice behavior beyond 500 km of a city was biased toward other cities and sites near them, but not destinations of scenic spots far away from them. And those cities which were more favorite by urban residents often located along coastal belts, including Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Beijing, Tianjin, the medium sized cities in the Shandong Peninsular, the cities in the Changjiang Delta, Amoy, Shenzhen, Canton and Haikou. The main destination choice behavior from a city by those non local residents dominantly occurs in a range of 250 km away from the city. There was a distinguished difference between destination choice behavior and attitude. Most of the respondents had a strong preference to destinations located far away from metropolitan area with beautiful scenery and clear air and water in their attitude for recreation , while most of them actually had a behavior of traveling more often to destinations in the metropolitan. Two factors caused above phenomena of contradictions: various natures of the destinations will change the actual visited rate of it; determinants, besides attitude, especially under the circumstances around tourists, would influence destination choice behavior greatly. Characteristics of tourists and leisurers also had important impact on destination choice behavior. A difference existed between male and female respondents in their emissiveness, male respondents occupied a 55.92 percent of the total, while female occupied 44.08 percent. Male and female respondents had slight different preferences to destination types. Age groups determined destination choice behavior. Site of scenic spots far away from the metropolis means more difficulties for tourists, and it is not surprised that young people had more preferences to them than those who were older. At the same time, elders appeared more interested in sites with rich historic and cultural contents than young persons. Occupations to a certain extent determined income and destination choice behavior. Respondents of some vocations with higher income had more opportunities to visit more destinations. Education level influenced behavior of tourists. A case study was given about Xi’an Tablet Forest and Huashan Mountain (the West Sacred Mt.) by the authors to tell a detail story. The Xi’an Tablet Forest is a historic site in the former capital of ancient China, while Huashan Mt. is a physical landscape with steep cliff and overhanging rocks. Tourists at Tablet Forest were more educated than those at Huashan Mt.

Key words: Chinese urban residents, destination choice behavior, spatial fragmentation of visited rate, characteristics of tourists