Turbulent flow around a rotating circular cylinder is investigated by Direct Numerical Simulation. The calculation is performed at three cases of low Reynolds number, Re=161, 348 and 623, based on the cylinder radius and friction velocity. Statistically strong similarities with fully developed channel flow are observed. Instantaneous flow visualization reveals that the turbulence length scale typically decreases as Reynolds number increases. Some insight into the spacial characteristics in conjunction with wave number is provided by wavelet analysis. The budget of dissipation rate as well as turbulent kinetic energy is computed and particular attention is given to the comparison with plane channel flow.