Properties of an optical quality circular metallic hollow waveguide are discussed and the technique for fabricating such a waveguide is decribed. The waveguide with gold or silver as the waveguide cladding material exhibits the characteristics of low propagation loss, transmission insensative to waveguide bending and misalignment, and capability of transmitting high power light from visible to far infrared. It is demonstrated that transmission of He Ne laser is independent of the refractive index of the liquid filled into a gold hollow waveguide, and this characteristic greatly extends the nonlinear waveguide applications. The mechanism for a “hollow fiber” in the 10.6 μm spectral region is discussed and results of propagation of CO2 laser through a gold hollow waveguide are presented.