In February 2012,the prestigious "urban parlor"—Guangzhou Flower City Square lost to the Pearl River Park in the evaluation of Guangdong Provincial Award for Planning and Architecture Design with Lingnan Characteristics,and just won the Silver Award.This triggers off the authorscomparative study on the regional characteristics of the two facilities,where both field research and questionnaire survey research are employed.On one hand,the field research on the Pearl River Park and the Flower City Square are conducted to explore the difference between design methods of the two open urban spaces at city center;on the other hand,the questionnaire survey is conducted on ordinary citizens.The collected data are analyzed with statistical analysis methods,such as frequency analysis,the paired sample parametric test and one-way ANOVA analysis,thus explore the subjective evaluation difference in Lingnan characteristics of both places,and compare the results with the expertsaward results.The data analysis indicates that both the Flower City Square and the Pearl River Park have high quality of greening environment,though the former presents a better general environment while the latter shows more Lingnan characteristics.The questionnaire analysis further shows that the factors impacting the representation of regional cultural characteristics for both the square and the park include materialistic,non-materialistic and time factors.The methods to enhance the regional cultural characteristics include showcasing regional culture and climate adaptability from the perspectives of design techniques,materiality and style and holding culture/art activities of regional characteristics to facilitate historical and cultural accumulation.