Bismuth oxide has wide applications in superconductive material, photoelectric material, electronic ceramic, electrolyte, and catalysts. To produce ultrafine bismuth oxide powders, some costly heating sources, such as plasma, high frequency induction, electron beam or laser, have to be used in the conventional vapor oxidation methods. The vapor oxidation method was improved by adding a reducing agent in the reaction system, where heating source was resistance tubular oven, instead of special heat source requirement. Nanometer bismuth oxide was prepared at 1 000-1 140 ℃, and the particle characteristics were investigated by XRD, SEM, DTA, laser sedimentograph. With low oxygen concentration (less than 20%) in the carrier gas, the bismuth oxide particle was near-sphere β-Bi2O3 with uniform and fine particle size (d0.5=65 nm, GSD=1.42); while with higher oxygen content (more than 50%), the powders were mixture of Bi2O2CO3 and β-Bi2O3.