Environmental temperature is one of the external factors that influence the cracking of expansive soil; and initial water content and dry density are the important internal factors. In order to study the cracking characteristics and influencing factors for expansive soil, the tests of cracking process are conducted on remolded Nanyang expansive soil with different initial water contents and different initial dry densities. The results indicate that cracking process can be divided into three phases, i.e. soil shrinkage-crack generation, rapid crack expansion and stabilization. The ratio between shrinkage area plus crack area and initial area is defined as fissure ratio, which can describe not only the drying shrinkage characteristics but also the cracking characteristics, and is suitable for depicting the crack propagation process of small size sample. Temperature has a certain extent influence on the dehydration process of expansive soil; a higher temperature can result in a small fissures ratio. Initial water content is positively related to cracking degree. Initial dry density has a negative correlation with cracking degree.