The invention discloses a coal burning boiler for a thermal power plant. The coal burning boiler comprises a smashing motor, a transverse conveying motor, a low temperature smoke exhaust pipe, a heatexchanging cavity, a transverse spiral feeder, a high temperature smoke exhaust pipeline, a boiler body, a lifting conveying motor, a steel wire screen, a mounting plate, a smashing box body and a lifting spiral feeder. Spiral blades are arranged in the cylinder bodies of the transverse spiral feeder and the lifting spiral feeder correspondingly, and rotary shafts connected to the centers of the two spiral blades are driven by the transverse conveying motor and the lifting conveying motor correspondingly. A feeding port of the transverse spiral feeder is connected with a discharging port of the lifting spiral feeder. According to the coal burning boiler, screening and smashing of raw coal are achieved through the smashing box body so that the coal can be more refined to burn conveniently,and thus the burning efficiency is improved. Pre-heating and recycling of high temperature smoke in the burning process of the boiler is achieved through the heat exchanging cavity, the coal is subjected to pre-heating, meanwhile the moisture content is reduced, and improving of the heat value of the coal is achieved.