Hippophae rhamnoides is an ecologically and economically important tree in arid areas, but its natural distribution is now very fragmented and contracted. Here we assembled and characterized its whole chloroplast (cp) genome based on Illumina pair-end sequencing data. The H. rhamnoides cp genome was 156,132 bp in size, containing a large single copy region (LSC) of 83,970 bp and a small single copy region (SSC) of 18,831 bp separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 26,658 bp. The genome had 132 genes, including 86 protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. Most of genes occurred as single-copy, while 18 gene species had two copies. The overall GC content of this genome was 36.7%, with the corresponding values of LSC, SSC and IR regions being 34.5, 30.3 and 42.4%, respectively. Further, the phylogenomic analysis strongly supported the sister relationship of H. rhamnoides and Elaeagnus in Elaeagnaceae.