In the present study, bismuth tungstate(Bi2WO6) nanocrystals were prepared by the hydrothermal method using bismuth nitrate (Bi(NO3)3·5H2O) and sodium tungstate (Na2WO4·2H2O) as raw materials at 150 ℃ for 24 h. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern shows that the Bi2WO6 nanocrystals belong to the orthorhombic phase with calculated lattice constants a=5.457 , b=16.435  and c=5.438 . The X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) indicate that the obtained Bi2WO6 was pure. The photocatalytic activity of the nanocrystal prepared by using water, N, N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) and ethylene glycol (EG) as the solvent respectively were studied for the degradation of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. The results show that Bi2WO6 sample obtained in EG has the best photocatalytic activity mainly owing to good dispersion, small particle size and broader spectrum response for visible light. In addition, the influence of pH and surfactant on the Bi2WO6 photocatalytic activity was also studied. The results show that Bi2WO6 sample has better photocatalytic activity when prepared at 150 ℃ and pH 1.0 with sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) as the surfactant. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the prepared Bi2WO6 reveal that the recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes was inhibited over Bi2WO6 prepared with SDS and thus its photocatalytic ability was enhanced.