Because of the increasing demand for cold chain transport and the expanding scale of their market with the development of social economy in China, systematic analysis of cold chain transport packaging paperboard is of great significance. In this work, the research and current application of cold chain transport packaging paperboards at home and abroad were analyzed. Corrugated paperboards and their structure commonly used in cold chain transport process were described. Moreover, the processing technology of waterproof layer and heat insulation layer of cold chain transport packaging paperboard was summarized. The packaging paper and paperboard composed of plant fiber had apparent advantages of renewable, non-toxic, and low cost. However, there were some problems to be solved, such as short service life, poor thermal insulation performance and limited use scope. In conclusion, paper and paperboard are expected to become the main development direction of cold chain packaging by developing higher strength paperboard base, endowing paperboard with unique physical and chemical properties, and applying multi-layer structure paperboard.