AbstractZnO nano-tubes (ZNTs) have been successfully synthesized via a simple hydrothermal-etching method, and characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy and room temperature photoluminescence measurement. The as-synthesized ZNTs have a diameter of 500 nm, wall thickness of 20–30 nm, and length of 5 µm. Intensity of the plane (0002) diffraction peak, compared with that of plane (10$$ \bar 1 $$0) of ZNTs, is obviously lower than that of ZnO nano-rods. This phenomenon can be caused by the smaller cross section of plane (0002) of the nano-tubes compared with that of other morphologies. On basis of the morphological analysis, the formation process of nano-tubes can be proposed in two stages: hydrothermal growth and reaction etching process.