Abstract On June 23, 2009, the Ministry of the Interior approved the proposal of Kaohsiung County and City to merge. The merger of Greater Kaohsiung Municipality which will take place on December 25, 2010 has finally been actualized after 20 years of waiting for Kaohsiung residents. The merger of Kaohsiung County and City will have a positive influence on regional development and competitive strength. The population will reach 2,770,000 with an area of 2,946 square kilometers after the merger. This merger will endow Greater Kaohsiung with substantial strength to compete with other cities in the world. At present, Kaohsiung City is unable to further develop its transportation systems due to insufficient land, although it already possesses a convenient traffic network consisting of an international harbor and airport, the high-speed rail, Kaohsiung Rapid Transit System and Taiwan Railways. Fortunately, Kaohsiung County possesses extensive land, industrial foundations and abundant natural resources. The integration of Kaohsiung City and County will empower the development of Greater Kaohsiung. As the merger of Kaohsiung County and City has been approved, the aim of this study is to examine how real estate developers and people who are fond of purchasing leisure cottages with the rural landscape make good use a new setting and conditions after the merger, to develop and/or select ideal leisure cottages with the rural landscape in terms of a convenient traffic network, the picturesque landscape, and a superior geographical environment based up a reasonable price, extensive leisure facilities and other criteria. The study provides real estate developers with an understanding of selection criteria in leisure cottages with the rural landscape through the ranking of seven factors (quality control, price, convenient transportation network, geographical environment, leisure facilities, landscape and cottage characteristics) by discussing three selected construction projects of leisure cottages with the rural landscape located in Greater Kaohsiung (He Fong Ting, Meinung-Moonlight Villa and Da Kuai Shan Hu). The respondents include: 1) three government officials: Mr. Jhong-Yuan Su, Deputy Director-general of Tourism & Traffic Department of Kaohsiung County; Mr. Siao-Jhih Yang, Chief of Agriculture Section of Meinung Township Office; and Mr. Wun-Hao Wu, Board Director of Landscape Engineering Association of Kaohsiung City; 2) three industrial representatives: Mr. Jin-Tong Lin, President of Moonlight Villa; Mr. Cing-Rong Chen, President of Ever Top Construction of Developing Enterprise; and Mr. Jin-Chih Wang, Project Manager of Meinung Cing Jing Villa; 3) three academic representatives: Mr. Sin-Jing Huang, Chairperson of Department of Horticulture, National Chiatung Agricultural Vocational Senior School; Mr. Lian-Bao Chen, Instructor of Department of Sport, Health & Leisure, Cheng Shiu University; and Architect Mr. Wei-Jhe Chen; 4) three consumer representatives for each of three selected construction projects in Greater Kaohsiung. A total of 18 respondents from four categories receive an in-depth interview to collect qualitative and quantitative data to analyze and to further understand the selection criteria on developing leisure cottages with the rural landscape in Greater Kaohsiung. Keywords: rural landscape, leisure cottage, Greater Kaohsiung, key factor.