Keywords: 
• recreational activities /
• health benefits /
• city parks and city squares /
• urban green space

Abstract: This study collected data in six typical urban green spaces in Hangzhou: the Western City Square, the Bai Causeway, the West Lake Culture Square, the Wu Shan Square and the Citizen Center, all being main sites where residents do their daily outdoor activities. It surveyed urban residents'outdoor recreational activity tendencies in green space, analyzed the correlation between recreation needs (the desire to be close to urban green space) and residents'demographic and socio-economic characteristics, and explored the effect of recreational activities on residents'physical and psychological benefits and the overall quality of life. The results show that most of the respondents'recreation needs ranked middle to high degree, and residents'recreation needs for green space vary significantly with their age and education background. Recreational activities in green space could enhance vitality, smooth mood, relieve fatigue, and accordingly increase the perceived quality of life. Based on these results, this paper concludes with suggestions of constructing more accessible, high quality and diversified functional urban green space in order to encourage more outdoor visits and better outdoor activities, to meet residents' diversified recreation needs, and to exploit public health benefits of urban green space to the full.