Dry reforming of methane provides opportunities of using CH4 and CO2 to produce syngas. The PtCo/CeO2 bimetallic catalyst shows higher activity and H-2/CO ratio than the corresponding monometallic catalysts, mainly attributed to the synergistic effect of Pt-Co. Structural feature of the PtCo/CeO2 catalyst was revealed by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS) of adsorbed CO and in situ techniques like X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray adsorption fine structure (XAFS) and ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS). Pt-Co alloy and separated Co particles co-existed in the bimetallic catalyst, whereas the former was determined as the dominant active structure with a Pt-Co-mixed-surface termination. During reaction, Pt and Co in the alloy structure nearly maintained their metallic state with slight oxygen decoration, yielding oxygen-metal site-pairs (O*-*). Combined kinetic investigations and DFT calculations reveal that the O*-modified catalytic surface of PtCo/CeO2 promotes C-H bond activation with higher entropy contribution (less constraints) to compensate its higher activation barrier. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy show that the PtCo/CeO2 catalyst is resistant to coke formation as effectively as Pt/CeO2 and can be easily regenerated by a mild CO2 treatment.