Abstract: Block system and gated residential community system are two different modes of residence in a modern city. Recently, coupled with the rapid urbanization and the expansion of urban scale in China, the impact of urban residential modes on the production and transportation of urban residents has attracted much attention from many disciplines. This paper takes Xianlin area as the case to research the road network structure and the spatial perception of the two kinds of living modes, in which the space syntax theory and the spatial analysis function of the GIS are used to select the accessibility and the convenience of the residential area. The result shows: (1) If the block system is implemented in the study area, the road network structure will have a “coreperiphery” spatial structure with a gradually reducing accessibility. While the road structure with high accessibility in the gated residential community system is related to the main road pattern, which shows an “intersecting parallels”  type. (2) The structural difference of road network accessibility affects the convenience of residential area. Compared with gated residential community system, the core area of the block system has high convenience and homogeneous distribution, but in periphery area the global convenience and local convenience are low and the distribution is relatively uneven. (3) Residential convenience and the road accessibility are the basis of spatial perception. The block system shows a higher spatial perception in the core area and a lower one in the peripheral area, while the spatial perception of the gated residential community system is overall high and homogeneous. (4) This applying of space syntax theory in the study on the road network structure and spatial perception of the residential area model not only extends the field of its application, but also puts forward the effective measures to promote the block system and the scientific basis for the implementation of urban planning