Hierarchical binary CdS/BiOCl heterostructures comprised of CdS nanoparticles (NPs) decorating on BiOCl nanoflakes (NFs) for the enhanced photocatalytic activity were fabricated by a facile two-step microwave-assisted aqueous chemical reaction. The chemical composition, morphology, crystal structure, and optical properties of the CdS/BiOCl nanostructures were characterized by various techniques. The results indicated that island-like CdS NPs with 10-30 nm in size are planted on the surface of BiOCl NFs primarily exposed {001}-facets with diameter in the range of 200-600 nm and thickness of about 30 nm. The possible growth mechanism for the satellite-core structured hybrid CdS/BiOCl architectures was proposed. Particularly, CdS/BiOCl-3 exhibited the superior photocatalytic activity for the decomposition of Congo red in high concentration under visible light irradiation, in which the pseudo-first-order kinetic rate constant was 2.33, 8.32 and 2.06 times higher than that of pure CdS, pristine BiOCl and the physical mixture. The promotion mechanism could be ascribed to the perfect band matching and efficient internal charge transfer within the engineered heterojunction, resulting in the lower carrier recombination loss and the longer lifetime of electron-hole pairs. Furthermore, the high photocatalytic performance for the degradation of malachite green and methyl red suggests a promising application in industrial wastewater purification. [GRAPHICS] .