In China various activities in daily life are traditionally performed outside of the houses. These outdoor activities have been established as a part of the Chinese lifestyle. However, these traditional residential areas are now disappearing, and new Western style apartments are being built. This survey was carried out in Wuhan city in China, to compare outdoor activities in four residential areas which were developed in different time for different purposes, and to investigate the residents' evaluation for their outdoor activities. Observation of outdoor activities and inquiry to the residents were performed. As a result, there were many activities promoting community interactions in the open spaces of urban residential areas, regardless of their time developed. On the other hand, in the suburbs, outdoor activities were more personal ones. The residents in urban area frequently ate breakfast out, and they were satisfied with the quality of meal stands, although they thought there were hygienic problems. In suburbs, quality of meal stands was evaluated not satisfactory. We suggest introducing the meal stands, which are designed well to match landscape and cleared hygienic problems, in the open space of the suburb residential area. We think that such an open space will encourage community interactions.
