Heavy metals in wastewater cause serious environmental pollutions and impact human health. As a very important method to remove heavy metal ions，adsorption has been widely used in industrial pollution control. This paper reviewed the removal of heavy metals in wastewater by adsorption. Studies on two major categories of adsorption，physical adsorption and chemical adsorption were summarized. The influencing factors such as temperature，the dosages of absorbent，contact time，the initial concentration of heavy metals，pH et al. on adsorption were analyzed. The researches of most commonly used absorbents were also summarized. The research trend to the treatment of the heavy metal wastewater in the future was discussed as well.