The fabrication and characteristics of grown ZnO nanowire/p-GaN heterojunction light-emitting diodes are reported. Vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays were grown on a p-GaN substrate by thermal chemical vapor deposition in quartz tube. The rectifying current-voltage characteristics indicate that a p-n junction was formed with a heterostructure of n-ZnO nanowire/p-GaN. The room temperature electroluminescent emission peak at 425 nm was attributed to the band offset at the interface between the n-ZnO nanowire and p-GaN and to defect-related emission from GaN; it was also found that the there exist the yellow band in the hetrojunction. It would be attributed to the deep defect level in the heterojunction.