The nanowire and whisker heterostructures of tin dioxide were fabricated by the chemical vapor deposition technique. It was demonstrated that various structures of tin oxide can be obtained by controlling the thickness of gold layer and the partial pressure of source vapor at growing sites. 12.5 and 25 nm thicknesses are preferable for the epitaxial growth of nanowires and heterostructure through vapor–liquid–solid mechanism, respectively. The tin dioxide whiskers with core-shell structure were fabricated by vapor–solid mechanism. Meanwhile, the influences of various factors on the tin dioxide growth are also discussed.