A facile chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method has been successfully developed to synthesize silicon nitride (Si3N4) nanorings without the use of an additive. The whole process involved only two steps of ball-milling and high-temperature calcination. The as-synthesized nanorings with an average diameter of 2-10 mu m had a crystalline Si3N4 core and an amorphous SiO2 shell. The optical property measurements showed that the nanorings had an optical band gap of 4.85 eV and could emit a broad peak at 412 nm (3.0 eV).