To explore the TCM clinical characteristics， syndrome identification and efficacy evaluation criteria of common cold. Methods: A survey derived from Delphi method was conducted to investigate the main symptoms， TCM syndromes and efficacy evaluation indexes of common cold. Results: After the first round of the survey， 10 main symptoms， 5 main TCM syndromes， and 11 efficacy evaluation indexes were selected. Conclusion: Although experts have reached a preliminary consensus on the syndrome differentiation and efficacy evaluation of common cold， there are still some issues need to be studied， such as whether the TCM syndrome should be considered when we evaluate the efficacy， and how to determine the weights of the evaluation indexes.