The natural draft cooling tower has been widely used in thermal power plants because of its stable operation, lower maintenance cost, and smaller environmental impact. Hundreds of natural draft cooling towers have been built in China, including different types and various capacities of conventional cooling towers, seawater cooling towers, flue gas injection cooling towers, cooling towers with water collecting device, dry cooling towers, and others. A wide range of investigation for natural draft cooling towers was carried out for the first time by the Electric Power Planning & Engineering Institute in 2013 in China. Based on the collected data and summarized information, the statistical results and conclusive opinions are analyzed. The development trend of natural draft cooling tower technology is also explored in this paper. The investigation results are expected to be a reference for designing and operating natural draft cooling towers in thermal power plants.