Two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides have special photonic band structure, controllable optical dispersion, small physical dimension and high nonlinearity, which draw wide attention in areas of nonlinear optics, optical logic gates, all-optical buffer, optical-power splitter, photonic-crystal lasers and high-sensitivity sensor. The fabrication technique of two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides is introduced, the propagation loss, self-imaging effect of multi-mode coupling and slow light effect are summarized. In particular, two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides based on chalcogenide glasses are mentioned. At last, the development prospect of two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides is discussed.