Based on sampling surveys of 1,200 rural residents with questionnaires in Liuyang city, Huarong county, Xinling county and Fenghuang county of Hunan province from²001 to 2003, this paper makes a detailed analysis of the tourism perspectives on the 1,077 effective samples. Some conclusions are drawn as follows: In Hunan, more and more rural residents become to know tourism while only 1.9% of the samples "never heard about" tourism. However, there is difference in the four survey regions. In Liuyang and Fenghuang, rural residents know more tourism knowledge than the other two regions, because tourism has long been developed there. Rural residents have positive attitudes to tourism in Hunan. Most of them accept tourism as a product, but there are different tourism perspectives among different age groups and different regions in the province. The tourism assent rate related to residents gained from tourism. The residents' assent rate is higher in Fenghuang than the other regions, and the rate is the lowest in Huarong. Tourism motivation of rural residents is multiplicity, but their purpose of touring is simple. Tourism hobbies of rural residents are affected by age and economic level. Especially, in Hunan, tourism hobbies of rural residents are inclined to sightseeing and learning-technology tour. Scenic spots are the most popular sites for rural residents, and big cities and eastern region are other tourism destinations of the rural residents. Most of the rural residents have a desire to go out for travel. Rural residents have abundant and centralized time for travel, whereas their budgetary outlay is normally higher than their actual expenditure. Especially, the older residents are inclined to choose 2～7 days tour, but the youngsters are inclined to 4～7 days or over 7 days tour. The main limited factors for rural residents' touring are income, and farming season and housework are the limited factors for young and middle-aged rural residents. However, the older residents are worried about the security and traffic conditions. And the subjective factors including in-comprehend tourism and the negative effect.