In this paper, the local heat transfer performance of the shell side of an axial-flow shell-and-tube heat exchanger with multi-parallel-channel inlet/outlet （MPC） was experimentally studied, with or without distributed baffles being set in the inlet region at the shell side. The investigation includes such aspects as （ 1 ） the distribution of local surface Nusseh number （Nu） in the inlet region; （2） the correlation between the local-mean surface Nusseh number and the tube bundle location as well as the Reynolds number （Re） ; （3） the variations of mean Nusseh number and Reynolds number of the inlet region and the heat exchanger; （4） the distribution rule of the local surface Nusselt number of the inlet region at the shell side ; and （5） a reasonable mechanism analysis of the abovementioned statements. The results indicate that distributed baffles effectively improve the fluid flow distribution and enhance the overall heat transfer performance of the shell side of the heat exchange.