The present invention discloses a method for recovering zinc ions in willemite ore wastewater. The method comprises: (1) soaking chlorine balls in N,N-dimethylformamide adopted as a reaction solvent until the chlorine balls completely swell; (2) adding p-aminobenzoic acid adopted as a ligand to the product obtained in the step (1), adding a catalyst, and at a reaction temperature of 80-120 DEG C, carrying out a heating stirring reaction for 10 min under nitrogen protection; (3) filtering the product obtained in the step (2) to obtain a filter cake, soaking and washing the filter cake with the N,N-dimethylformamide adopted as the reaction solvent until the washing liquid is colorless, washing with distilled water, soaking with a NaOH solution, washing with distilled water, and washing sequentially with absolute alcohol, acetone and diethyl ether, and carrying out vacuum drying at a temperature of 50 DEG C to obtain an adsorption function resin; and (4) accurately weighing 15 mg of the dried resin, adding an acetic acid-sodium acetate buffer solution, soaking overnight, taking 50-100 mL of a supernatant after the willemite ore wastewater naturally precipitates, adding the swelling resin and the remaining acetic acid-sodium acetate buffer solution, taking out the resin after 10 h, and washing with a 0.5-2 mol / L HCl, wherein the washed solution is the zinc ion solution.