Abstract: This study aims to address a long-standing challenge in the governance of national parks: accurately assessing the recreation value of parks and translating it into sustainable and broadly shared benefits. By integrating international experiences with recent advancements in ecosystem services science, the objective is to develop a management approach that enhances the recreation management capabilities of China′s national park system. A structured review was conducted on classic recreation management frameworks (e.g., ROS/LAC/VERP/VUM) and recent ecosystem services literature. Based on these findings, the perspective of Ecosystem Services Management (ESSM) was introduced, explicitly combining supply, demand, and service/equity. Subsequently, a theory-to-practice framework was developed, selecting representative cases from Europe and the U.S. - such as EU ESTIMAP for regional coordination and equity, the UK′s "soft-hard" recreation zoning for rulemaking, and data-driven adaptive management in the U.S. (e.g., integrating InVEST models and social media tracking) - to extract applicable methodologies, forming an implementation path suitable for China. A Four-Phase, Ten-Step practice pathway for national park recreation management was proposed: (1) comprehensive assessment of supply and demand, covering ecological thresholds, landscape suitability, accessibility, and visitor characteristics; (2) analysis and zoning through a supply×demand×constraints matrix, delineating functional areas, determining carrying capacity, and designing standards; (3) integration of indicators with specific management measures at strategic and implementation levels (e.g., facility and service configuration, dynamic reservations, seasonal closures, differential pricing, and concession rules); (4) establishment of monitoring and adaptation mechanisms, triggering real-time adjustments through high-frequency indicators (e.g., ecological pressure, crowding, equity coverage), incorporating natural capital accounting, and ecological compensation. Additionally, six policy recommendations were proposed: strengthening recreation zoning and control; institutionalizing impact-monitoring indicators; building a coordinated facility system; prioritizing community development and cultural heritage preservation; expanding cultural services and mental health connections; and implementing a combined mechanism of natural-capital accounting and ecological compensation. Recreation management in national parks is shifting from a resource- or capacity-based paradigm to an ESSM model oriented towards ecosystem service benefits, emphasizing the coupling of supply, demand, and service/equity. It means that recreation is no longer a zero-sum game but an interactive form of mutual enhancement between humans and nature. Future priorities include integrating Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP)-based recreation value accounting with real-time big data monitoring to support adaptive governance and strengthening ecological compensation legislation to ensure benefits feed back into ecological protection and local communities. This comprehensive pathway aims to achieve the dual objectives of conservation prioritization and universal access, providing a replicable reference template for park systems globally facing similar governance challenges.