Abstract: The recreational forest is an important type of special-purpose forests in China, which can provide general public with comfortable recreational environments. Scientific management of the forest is vital important to peoples’ physical and mental health and also to development of forest tourism industry. The Platycladus orientalis recreational forests, which are widely distributed in Beijing, have long been well received by local residents. To determine optimal tending regime and interval for the forest, three different tending regimes were applied to middle-aged stands on shady and sunny slope in the Xishan National Forest Park of Beijing. The dynamics of scenic quality and major scenic factors of both stands were monitored for five successive years before and after tending. Based on Scenic Beauty Estimation Method, effect of these applied tending regimes on scenic quality and its duration were analyzed. The results showed that: 1) Different tending regimes greatly increased preference degree of two stands in short terms, and significantly improved their scenic quality. 2) Three tending regimes (A1, A2 and A3) for shady slope stand had similar excellent scenic effect, while for sunny slope stand the B1 regime had better effect than the other two (B2 and B3). 3) When the scenic effect and its duration were both taken into consideration, A3 regime (clear bole height of 2－3 m above ground, remained cover of shrub layer about 20% plus ground clearing) was better for shady slope stand, and corresponding tending interval could be 2 years; while for the sunny slope stand, B1 regime (clear bole height of 2－3 m above ground, remained cover of shrub layer about 25% plus ground clearing) was more appropriate and its tending interval could be at least 4 years. From the perspective of forest aesthetics, tending regimes and corresponding intervals proposed in this study would provide technical support for tending practice of the P.orientalis recreational forest in Beijing mountainous areas.

Key words: recreational forest, tending regime, tending interval, Scenic Beauty Estimation Method, preference degree, scenic factor