Hydrochar (HC) has all the criteria of a catalyst support, in particular its low-cost and high thermal stability. However, it is still few reported in the dry reforming of methane reaction (DRM). In this paper, a series of Ni@HC core-shell structural catalysts were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal strategy and subsequent wetness impregnation method, and evaluated in the DRM reaction. Experimental results demonstrated that Ni-15@HC catalyst possessed an excellent CH4 and CO2 conversions of 80.3% and 90.3% at 850 degrees C, with a negligible decreasing of 1.8% and 2.2% after 100 h test, respectively. At the same time, H-2 and CO selectivity reached 93.4% and 98.7%. XRD, XPS, TEM, SEM and TG-DTG characteristic of the used catalysts presented that limited coke deposition at the surface of catalyst was occurred and Ni particle size was slight decreased from 24.0 to 25.9 nm during DRM process. In-situ DRIFTS analysis was conducted to investigate the reaction mechanism. These results demonstrated that Ni@HC core-shell structural catalysts were very promising for its application in DRM process.