Carbon-coated Cu nanopowders with core/shell structure have been successfully fabricated by pulsed wire evaporation (PWE) method, in which a mixed gas of Ar/$CH_4$ (10 vol.%) was used as an ambient gas. The characterization of the samples was carried out using x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM). It was found that the nanoparticles show a spherical morphology with the size ranging of 10-40 nm and are covered with graphite layers of 2-4 nm. When oxygen-passivated Cu nanopowders were annealed under flowing argon gas (600 and 800$^{circ}C$), the crystallinity of $Cu_2O$ phase and the particle size gradually increased. On the other hand, carbon-coated Cu nanopowders remained similar to as-prepared case with no additional oxide or carbide phases even after the annealing, indicating that the metal nanoparticles are well protected by the carbon-coating layers.