Thermal performance of closed wet cooling tower (CWCT) with packing is analyzed using experiments and numerical simulations. The effect of cooling water flow direction on the performance is discussed. The results show that the packing plays an important role in improving the cooling effect of the CWCT. Under the same operating conditions, the cooling water outlet temperature of CWCT with packing is lower than that of CWCT without packing between 0.6 degrees C and 1.5 degrees C the cooling efficiency of CWCT with packing is higher than that of CWCT without packing between 6.0% and 14.8%. The concurrent cooling water flow direction results in more uniform temperature differences between cooling water and the spray water, which can benefit the cooling water outlet temperature 0.3-0.7 degrees C and the cooling efficiency 3.0-9.5%.