The perception of rural tourism has been the research focus in domestic academic circle in recent years. This paper tries to study the perception of rural tourism destination development in the suburbs of metropolis from the angle of urban residents. According to the first-hand investigation data, this article, taking Nanjing city as an example, inquired into metropolitan residents' perception of rural tourism destination in the suburbs using statistical analysis methods of SPSS software, and discussed the differences of perception in demographic characteristics and the correlation between the overall impression and evaluation of each factor. Based on the above research, regression analysis of overall impression was applied in order to explore the specific relationship among overall impression and evaluation of each factor. The results indicate that:1) the residents' perception level of rural tourism destination in the suburbs isn't high, which is lower than the better level, and the evaluation of traffic is the worst; 2) the differences of perception in demographic characteristics aren't all identical; 3) the positive correlations between the overall impression and evaluation of each factor are significant; 4) rural scenery, food and beverage, tourism services and accommodation have more influence on overall impression; 5) among the four factors, rural scenery influence on overall impression is the biggest, and that of food and beverage. In order to promote the better development of rural tourism in the suburbs of metropolis, it is necessary that the government should pay more attention to and give more support to the rural tourism development especially in making a scientific plan and introducing a supporting policy. The research results have important guidance value to the rural tourism development in the suburbs of metropolis.