The equal-height-difference passive heat removal system (EHDPHRS) has a large potential in floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) due to its ability to fully utilize the marine environment to achieve residual heat removal. However, the horizontal connection between the heat sink and the heat source could easily lead to the subcooled-water reverses flow and thus trigger serious flow instabilities. In the present paper, a fully visualized experimental set was built, combined with a particle image velocity (PIV) system to investigate the subcooled-water reverses flow in the EHDPHRS. First, PIV observations clearly highlighted five flow stages during a complete natural circulation, including the reverse flow occurred in the single-phase and two-phase flow. Then, it was shown that the single-phase reverse velocity is proportional to heating power and inversely proportional to subcooled-water temperature. While, the two-phase reverse velocity increases first and then decreases with the increase in heating power. Moreover, the two-phase reverse flow phenomenon shows obvious periodicity. Finally, the buoyancy force (Fb) caused by the density contrast, and the pressure difference (FΔP) caused by the direct contact condensation (DCC) are the triggering forces for the reverse flow, while the flow inertia force (Fi) caused by the forward flow represents the restraining force.