This work provides a hydrothermal method to synthesize noble-metal-free materials core-shell CdS@MnS nanorods as catalysts for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. To characterize the hydrothermally synthesized products, XRD, UV vis DRS, TEM, HRTEM and XPS were carried out. Extraordinarily high hydrogen evolution rate under visible light irradiation (lambda >= 400 nm) can be achieved. TEM images show that MnS is uniformly coated on the surface of CdS nanorods. The hydrogen evolution results show that coated MnS can significantly improve the photocatalytic efficiency of CdS nanorods. The hydrogen evolution rate reaches an optimal value up to 15.55 mmol g(-1)h(-1) with MnS content of 5 wt% and is about 3.44 times higher than that of bare CdS nanorods. The large and intimate coaxial heterojunction between CdS nanorod core and MnS thin shell benefits the separation and transportation of photo-induced charge carriers.