Kazak nomads first started to come to what is now Bayan Olgi in the 1840s. The nomads came to graze their sheep on the high mountain pastures during summer, and spent the winter in Kazakhstan or Xinjiang  province in China. After the Mongolian revolution in 1921, a permanent border was drawn by agreement between China, Russia and Mongolia, but the Kazaks remained nomadic until the 1930’s, crossing the border at will.