Hey guys, here's my own personal notes on playing Xin Zhao in the jungle based off of trial and error. I haven't gotten to play around with runes much since I spent too much IP on champions in my early levels (fail). But nonetheless, feel free to comment. I'd love the POSITIVE feedback :p

More chapters to come when I'm not so lazy...

I personally solo queue a lot since my friends are all busy or already playing a game by the time I log on, so my jungle path tends to be based on the situation that the teams are in.

If at all possible, get your mid and at least one other champ to start on wolves with everyone clearing them when they spawn. Then move on up to blue buff and have your teammates back off so they don't take your experience points. Save your smite if you get enough help - either to finish red buff quickly or to buff steal.

Theoretically speaking, suppose you were on the blue team and went from wolves to blue to tank top. After your top gank, the timing should be just about right to meet the opposing jungler at their red buff (supposing they took a typical blue/wolves/wraiths/red route). If you have the balls, you can hide in the bushes for a smite steal. High ranking players tend to bring their buffs in to the bush to fight, so be conscious of your own health/mana in case of a confrontation!

Moving on...
From there, you can run an early gank to repay your teammates for their lost time in lane or you can head on over to wraiths/red buff/wolves. Gank if at all possible, buy Boots if at all possible on your first recall, but don't forget your Spirit Stone. From there, jungle away and gank away.

Summary:
Wolves
Blue buff
Gank
Wolves
Wraiths
Red
Golem

Buy order:
Standard jungle lane start items - Hunter's Machete and 5 Health Potion. From there, build a Spirit Stone for the regen and grab Boots to move faster through the jungle or in position to gank. Finish your Spirit of the Elder Lizard and then build the remaining order of your items depending on the situation - Sunfire Aegis next if you find yourself needing to be more tanky, or The Brutalizer for more burst on your ganks.

Item choice:
Spirit of the Elder Lizard - First of all, rushing this helps with anything you may need to do next. Whether it be clearing through the jungle again or ganking, the passive adds to your character's capabilities.

Black Cleaver - standard item for Xin. Armor reduction + increased attack speed with Battle Cry (W) = melting faces. It is a fair early to mid game item due to its gradually increasing cost increments as you take the steps to build it. Adds tankiness, burst, and armor reduction.

Maw of Malmortius - again, another great damage item with tankiness and a handy passive. Great cost increments just like Black Cleaver.

Sunfire Aegis - Hopefully, as Xin, you're going to be relatively tanky. Sunfire Cape is not only a great defensive item but also adds that damage to everything around you as you (hopefully) jump in to the middle of the opposing team and soak up the damage. General recipe price is high (lowest item costing 750, and only going up from there), but payoff is great if you can manage to keep the cash for it.

Warmog's Armor - The recipe items here take up a ton of inventory space. So if you're going to take it in little steps, go for it early so you don't end up with a giant halt in your build as you try to save up for the 1175 gold for the cost of the recipe plus whatever other items you need to complete it. Supposing you only had a couple of item slots left, another route would be to buy the more expensive items of the recipe first to reduce the last lump cost of finishing Warmog's.

Wit's End - Opposing team not doing much damage to you? Grab a Wit's End to add magic damage to your attacks, greatly increase your attack speed, and stack magic resist on attack. Overall price won't slow down your build as long as you can grab your Recurve Bow first.

Randuin's Omen - As somewhat of a utility/defensive item, this works great if you're not greatly needed in team fights for damage.