大城市老龄化及由此带来的城市社会问题已引起社会的普遍关注。北京、上海等一些大城市市区,老龄人口的比重已经占到城市市区总人口的20～30%,部分老龄化社区也初见端倪。然而,目前学术界对老年人口问题的研究,主要集中在老年人口的贫困、医疗保健以及老龄公寓等经济和社会问题方面。对老年人口的精神慰藉及休闲健身活动的要求缺乏研究。本文通过对北京市区50个退休老人四季休闲行为的跟踪调查,采用时间地理学的研究方法,揭示大城市老年人口日常生活行为、休闲活动的基本特征及其时空分异规律,为大城市规划中的休闲空间的组织与布局提供科学依据。

As aging process speeds up, China is beginning to face the critical social problems of an aging population, which have already affected all aspects from the State's imperfect social security system to family traditions. After abolishing the traditional cradle-to-grave welfare system under the planned economy in the early 1980s, the retired people have gradudlly lost their links relations with their units where they once worked. Meanwhile, the size of families is growing smaller and smaller. The senior people fail to communicate with other people in society, and are more likely to feel lonely. The aged is about 20～30 % of the total population and some aged communities even emerge in urban districts of some large cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, and so on. However, more attention has been paid to senior people's pension, medical care and living conditions. There are few studies on their need for leisure and leisure behaviors. This paper builds an empirical study on a survey, which records daily activities of 50 retired people for a whole year. With the help of time geography, the authors try to carry out a theoretical study on the need, quality and space-time pattern of senior people's leisure activities. The authors find out that (1) most senior people are living in a regular lifestyle; (2) the total daily leisure time is long, but the quality of their leisure activities is not high; (3) most of their leisure activities are carried out at their homes with their family members; (4) their leisure behaviors are different in sex, age, income, education, season and living place; and (5) the leisure facilities in communities and society are far from meeting their need nowadays. The outcome is believed to be useful to the spatial organization of leisure and urban planning in large cities.