This study develops a numerical model to simulate two-dimensional mixing in tidal rivers using a Lagrangian particle method with the scheme of particle strength exchange for diffusion term. The major advantage of this model is the essentially grid-free nature of the particle method, which may reduce the numerical dissipation in solving the mass transport equation, and also concentrate the computational resources on the simulation of concentration field. Several benchmark problems of two-dimensional advection-diffusion equation were simulated using this model for validation, such as the impulsive injection and continuous injection of a point source in the uniform flow within a straight channel, and the dispersion on a sloping beach with a non-uniform velocity field. The comparisons between numerical and analytical results show good agreements. To test the capability of the model, two cases of contaminant mixing in a rectangular estuary with simplified geometry caused by a monotonic tidal wave were simulated. The tidal velocity field is given from an analytic solution, and the base flow is ignored. Computational results show that this model is capable of simulating the dispersion of contaminant due to the oscillatory flow in a tidal river.