Bayan Har Mountains, Mountain range in Qinghai Province, China

The Bayan Har Mountains run east-southeast from south-central Qinghai for over 780 km to the Qinghai-Sichuan border, a branch of the Kunlun range. The northern slopes are gentle and the southern slopes steep, cut by many deep valleys. Golog Mountain is the highest peak at 5,369 m, and summits above 5,000 m keep snow year-round.

The range's Mongolian name, Bayan Har, means "Rich and Black"; older Western forms were Bayen-káras and Bayan-Kara-Ula. Geologically it is treated as a branch of the Kunlun Mountains, running over 780 km from south-central Qinghai southeast to the Qinghai-Sichuan border. Its northern slopes are gentle and its southern slopes steep, cut by many deep valleys.

The name comes from Mongolian, meaning "Rich and Black". Most herders in the range are Tibetans, who use the lower slopes and hills as summer pasture for sheep and yaks. The wizard Shang Ko in Barbara Hambly's novel Bride of the Rat God (1994) is called the last of the sorcerers of the Bayan Har Shan.

The range runs over 780 km from south-central Qinghai southeast to the Qinghai-Sichuan border. Above 5,000 m snow persists year-round, so travel is limited to lower slopes and valleys; summer pastures there are grazed by Tibetan herders' sheep and yaks. Approach from Xining, the provincial capital, and allow for the high plateau altitude.

The range's northern slopes hold the Yueguzonglie Basin and the Gyaring-Ngoring Lakes, the source of the Yellow River. The name Bayan Har is Mongolian for "Rich and Black"; older forms include Bayen-káras and Bayan-Kara-Ula. The range also appears in the first episode of the anime Ranma ½ (1989), where the cursed springs of Jusenkyo lie in its mountains.