The invention discloses a catalyst for hydrogenating dimethyl oxalate to prepare ethylene glycol. The catalyst is a hollow ring structure. The catalyst comprises the following components in parts by weight: 1-50 parts of active components; 0-50 parts of promoter metals 10 parts; 30-90 parts of carrier. The active component is at least one of copper, silver, nickel, cobalt, gold and iron; the carrier is SiO 2 , carbon nanotubes, activated carbon, graphene, mesoporous carbon, ZrO 2 、Al 2 o 3 , ZnO, SBA-15, HMS, ZSM-5, MCM-41 and at least one of MCM-48. The catalyst for the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to ethylene glycol of the present invention has high activity, good stability and high selectivity, the conversion rate of dimethyl oxalate can be greater than 99.9%, and the selectivity of ethylene glycol is greater than 96%. There are few by-products, and the target product is easy to separate. After 1000 hours of single-tube long-term operation of the catalyst, the reaction is stable and there is no obvious deactivation phenomenon.