What to Pack for a Xinjiang Self-Drive: Vehicle & Personal

The thing I forgot on my first trip was a power bank; the thing I’m glad I packed was a 20 L fuel barrel — the list below is earned, not copied.

Packing for a Xinjiang self-drive splits into vehicle kit and personal kit. Distances are long and services sparse, so the right bag prevents a bad day. Here’s the checklist — the one I’d hand a friend, with the items that actually earned their place.

Vehicle kit

Full-size spare, tyre inflator, tyre pressure gauge, jump leads, tow rope, snow chains (winter), warning triangle and reflective vest (mandatory on expressways). Tool roll and duct tape for field fixes. I check tyre pressure every morning — gravel throws stones. The full-size spare is the upgrade that matters most; a space-saver on the Duku limits you to 80 km/h and short hops, which strands a remote loop. The inflator handles the slow leak from gravel so you don’t burn a spare. The reflective vest is law on expressways and a visibility saver at a roadside stop. Duct tape is the field fix for a loose trim or a cracked hose — temporary, but it gets you to the next town. The kit isn’t optional gear; it’s the difference between a 20-minute fix and a 400-RMB recovery. I keep it in a labelled crate, not loose in the boot. The morning pressure check is the habit that prevents most of it.

• Full-size spare > space-saver
• Inflator + gauge + jump leads + tow rope
• Vest mandatory; duct tape for field fixes

Documents and money

Passport, visa/transit proof, driving permit, border permit (if south), insurance papers, and 500–1,000 RMB small cash for yurts and tolls that reject cards. Copies separate from originals. A waterproof pouch keeps them readable. The document stack is the gate to the whole trip — lost passport or permit and you’re done. The border permit (south) rides with the passport; the driving permit rides with both. The cash is for the yurt, the stall, and the dead-reader pump — small bills, because change is short remote. The copies are the insurance: a soaked or lost original buys time with a copy. The waterproof pouch is non-negotiable — a spilled bottle in the boot ruins paper docs. I keep the pouch in the door pocket, not the boot, so it’s reachable at a checkpoint without unpacking. Documents are the first thing I pack and the last I’d lose.

• Passport + visa + driving + border permit
• 500–1,000 RMB small bills
• Copies separate; waterproof pouch

Personal kit

Sunscreen SPF50+, sunglasses, lip balm, a warm layer (nights drop even in summer), a 0°C-rated bag liner for yurts, wet wipes, and any medicine (stomach, cold, altitude for the Pamir). Dryness and UV are the silent beaters. The UV at altitude burns in an hour; the dryness cracks lips and noses by day two. The warm layer is the surprise — even July nights at Sayram or Bayinbuluke drop to single digits, so the ‘summer’ pack needs a fleece. The bag liner turns a dubious yurt into a sleepable one. The wet wipes are the bathroom substitute at a grassland stop. The medicine covers the two real risks: the water-transition stomach and the Pamir altitude. I pack the personal kit in a daypack I keep in the cabin, not the boot, because the altitude meds and the wipes are needed mid-drive. The silent beaters (sun, dry) are prevented by the small stuff.

• SPF50+ + sunglasses + lip balm (UV/dry)
• Warm layer even in summer
• Bag liner + wipes + altitude meds

Electronics

Phone car charger, power bank, camera with spare cards/batteries, and a 12V inverter if you edit on a laptop. Offline maps downloaded. I keep a second phone as a pure GPS to save the main battery. The charger is the navigation lifeline; the power bank is the stop-and-the-car’s-off backup. The camera spares matter because the light changes fast and the cards fill — two spares and spare batteries for the cold (batteries die at altitude). The inverter is for the laptop editor; most don’t need it, but if you blog on the road, it’s the trick. The second phone as GPS is the redundancy that frees the main phone for comms and photos. The offline maps are the prep, not the device — download them before the mountains. Electronics are the support system; the charger and the bank are the load-bearing parts.

• Charger + bank + camera spares
• 12V inverter if editing on road
• Second phone as pure GPS

Food and water

2 L water per person per day, nang and instant food for three days, dried fruit, and a compliant 20 L fuel barrel for desert legs. The ‘three boxes and a barrel’ rule has never let me down. The water is the non-negotiable — hard water and long gaps make bought water essential; 2 L per person per day, more in the desert. The nang is the durable carb that survives the boot; the instant food is the stranded-day meal. The dried fruit is the between-meal protein and the sweet. The barrel is desert-only, a compliant metal canister strapped down, filled at the last town. The ‘three boxes’ (water, food, snack) plus the barrel is the provisioning system that turns a closed pass into a lunch break. I rebuild the boxes at every county. Food and water are the survival half of the pack; the vehicle kit is the other. Pack both, drive anywhere.

• 2 L water/pax/day
• Nang + instant for 3 days
• Compliant 20 L barrel for desert

The pack as a system

Don’t just throw it in — pack by access: vehicle kit in a labelled crate (reachable), documents in the door pouch, personal daypack in the cabin, food/water in the boot boxes, barrel strapped at the back. A tidy pack means you find the tyre iron at dusk in the rain, not after a scramble. The labelled crate is the trick — ‘vehicle’ gets the tools, so the spare and inflator are together. The door pouch is the document home, reachable at a checkpoint. The cabin daypack is the personal kit, mid-drive reachable. The boot boxes are food/water, less urgent. The barrel strapped at the back, not rolling. The system is what makes the kit usable; a heap of gear in the boot is half-useless when you need the inflator under a Tianshan drizzle. Pack by access and the list earns its place. The pack is infrastructure; build it like one.

• Vehicle crate labelled + reachable
• Docs in door pouch; daypack in cabin
• Boot boxes; barrel strapped at back