A method and apparatus for maintaining routing information in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network are provided. The method includes that: a super maintenance node receives routing update information of an ordinary node in its home area; the super maintenance node sends routing update information to super maintenance nodes in other network areas; the super maintenance nodes in other network areas notify ordinary nodes in their home network areas to update routing information. With the present invention, a node of strong processing capabilities at the network area border is chosen to act as a super maintenance node and other nodes as ordinary nodes; when a node joins or fails, an ordinary node sends detected routing update information only to the super maintenance node in the local network area; the super maintenance node then forwards the update information to super maintenance nodes in other network areas. Each super maintenance node notifies ordinary nodes in its home network area of the received routing update information.