For many people, a self-driving tour of Tibet is full of passion and challenges. This is the world’s first plateau and the roof of the world, and altitude sickness and the unique Tibetan customs make you pay attention to many things. Here is a list of items that you cannot bring on a self-driving tour of Tibet.
Tibet is different from other ethnic regions. It’s more strict.
Therefore, on a self-driving tour of Tibet, items that may theoretically explode, such as loose gasoline, kerosene, paint, sulfur, and sodium metal, aluminum powder, oxidizers, and peroxides, which ignite when they come into contact with water, are absolutely prohibited.
However, these flammable and explosive items are not something you would bring on a self-driving tour, so the only item that you truly cannot bring is a gasoline tank.
1. About gasoline tanks
On the G318 National Highway, after passing the Jinsha River Bridge and turning left for a few minutes, you will reach the Public Security and Armed Police checkpoint in Mangkang, Tibet. As you continue westward, there will be Public Security and Armed Police checkpoints between each county in Tibet.
Generally speaking, the Public Security and Armed Police checkpoints at the entrance to Tibet are stricter. All passengers in the vehicle must get off, take their ID cards, and “check in” at the designated device.
If your information is clean in the Public Security Population Management System, you can just “check in” and leave.
The Armed Police check vehicles, basically they just look at your face, ask you where you came from and where you are going, and whether you have brought a gasoline tank. They may or may not check your trunk. This is random. When we passed through the Mangkang checkpoint, they didn’t ask us to open the trunk, but the car in front of us was asked to open theirs.
On the G318 National Highway, the first checkpoint in Tibet, the Mangkang Zhu Balong Town checkpoint is quite strict. Vehicles line up and are checked one by one.
At any gas station in Tibet, you must register your driver’s license when filling up. In Anduo, you are even required to register the ID cards of all passengers in the vehicle.
When registering, we asked the gas station staff: Can we fill the spare gasoline tank? They said: No! Unless you have a special certificate issued by the local police station.
The checkpoint between Ranwu Lake and Linzhi.
The Anduo County Public Security Checkpoint on the G109 National Highway.
In fact, it is not just in the Tibetan region that gasoline tanks are not allowed to be filled up. Even on the highway from Lanzhou to Chengdu, rescue vehicles are not allowed to bring gasoline tanks to refuel vehicles that have run out of gas and are stranded.
We encountered a situation on the highway from Lanzhou to Chengdu where our car ran out of gas and we had to call for roadside assistance. We asked them to bring 10 liters of fuel. When the rescue vehicle arrived, the rescuers said that they were not allowed to bring fuel tanks to provide roadside assistance, and they could only tow us to the nearest service area to refuel…
When we drove back to Chengdu from Guizhou, we also encountered a similar situation where our car ran out of gas. However, the rescue vehicle on the Chengdu-Chongqing Expressway brought us 5 liters of fuel, charging us only 70 yuan.
Our car was towed to the Li County service area to refuel by roadside assistance on the highway from Lanzhou to Chengdu.
2. About drones
Many people say that aerial photography equipment cannot be brought, but this actually depends on the situation:
If you are only going in from Sichuan and out through Qinghai, and not going to the border areas like Shan Nan, Ali, Shigatse, and the Everest Base Camp, aerial photography equipment is allowed. In fact, we drove to Tibet in September last year with a DJI PHANTOM 4PRO and did aerial photography all the way, no problem.
Aerial photography in Tibet.
3. About outdoor stoves
If you are planning to camp in Tibet and bring a tent and a solid fuel outdoor stove, generally speaking, as long as it is packed properly, the police will not open the box to check. If you put it out in plain sight, especially if it’s a fancy stove, then it depends on your luck.
4. About roof-mounted luggage boxes
If you have a SUV or off-road vehicle with a roof-mounted luggage box, it’s best to go to the local traffic management department to have the whole vehicle photographed and registered, and then change your vehicle registration certificate so that the appearance of your vehicle matches your driving license. Otherwise, you may run into trouble. There are Public Security and Armed Police checkpoints in each county in Tibet, and generally speaking, you’ll be fine. But if the police at a particular checkpoint happen to be in a bad mood and see that the photo on your driving license doesn’t match the appearance of your vehicle, they may ask you to remove the luggage box. They would have a valid reason for doing so. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
On the route from Sichuan to Qinghai, there are self-driving cars with a “package” on their roof. In theory, traffic police in other parts of the country generally turn a blind eye to vehicles with a “package” on their roof. But in Tibet, while there are no mandatory regulations, it’s best to be prepared for any potential trouble. It’s better to think about it beforehand.
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