Waterfront landscape is an important part of the urban landscape. In this study, the aim was to evaluate the visual quality of waterfront landscape in Hefei city. The visual quality assessment methodology was used through public perception-based and expert/design approaches. The former approach enables us to rank waterfront landscapes based on a survey of public preference; the latter weighs the contributions of the elements contained in the photo to its overall scenic beauty via correlation and regression analyses. In total, 165 photos were taken from 9 am to 5 pm on several sunny days in October 2010. Finally, the 22 photos were selected and used in the survey captured the most relevant features of waterfront landscapes. The valuators are college students who came from the subjects of art design, urban planning and garden design. 280 college students ranked these 22 selected photos from highest to lowest preference that we used a seven-point scale for each photo, with 7 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest score. Each photo was shown for ten seconds and repeated twice. Among the college students, 100 students who had rich experience in visual quality assessment scored the intensity of landscape attributes. Characterization of waterfront landscape attributes were described by 13 indicators and scored from 4 (highest) to 1 (lowest). The results indicated waterfront landscapes depicted in the "best" photos possessed more attractive qualities regarding the more nature-type revetment and the selection of human additions compared to those depicted in the "worst" photos. The perceived visual quality was positively influenced by, in decreasing order of importance, positive man-made elements, the type of waterfront revetment and tree group contour. To a lesser degree, type of vegetations, vegetation shape, color contrast and type of waterfronts had important influences on scenic beauty. The analysis results also showed there are linearly correlations among 13 landscape indicators. For instance, vegetation shape, the degree of wildness and the positive man-made elements showed to be significantly correlated with the type of vegetations. We also compared our results with others and analyzed their differences. Furthermore, we suggested the following steps for future urban waterfront landscape design and planning regarding perceived visual beauty: (1)The visual resources should be considered as health, aesthetic appreciation and well being to affect human beings; (2)Waterfront greening should change the current practice of the top-down approach and encourage more public participation; (3)Instead of concrete riverbanks, natural or seminatural revetment should be built in waterfront space; (4)We should value vividness, variety and distinctiveness of landscape more in landscape configuration design; (5) Native species and various plants should be chosen as much as possible and suitable garden ornaments (winding garden paths, sculptures and wooden pavilions, etc.) are also welcomed.