The invention relates to a forming process and system for manufacturing packaging expanded polystyrene. The process comprises the steps of (1) first-stage expansion, (2) second-stage expansion, (3) material feeding, (4) three-stage expansion, (5) thermal insulation, (6) primary cooling, (7) secondary cooling, (8) final cooling and (9) mould removing. The system comprises a first-stage expansion machine, a second-stage expansion machine, an expanded polystyrene forming machine, a water bin used for the primary cooling, a drying purifier for the secondary cooling, a negative pressure cooling device for the final cooling, and a boiler used for generating water vapor. According to the process and the system, two purposes can be realized by one system, so that the cost of production and manufacturing can be lowered; water in the packaging expanded polystyrene can be dried by thermal insulation, so that the forming quality is improved; the water cooling and the negative pressure cooling are combined, so that the cooling of a mould is accelerated, the processing and manufacturing period is shortened, and the production efficiency is improved; the cooling of the mould is divided into three stages, the phenomena of holes, and incompleteness and irregular deformation of the packaging expanded polystyrene caused by abrupt temperature drop can be avoided, so that the forming quality of the packaging expanded polystyrene can be effectively improved.