Inner Mongolia Bayanqolu was born in
Otog Front Banner,
Inner Mongolia. His name is a combination of the Mongolian word
bayan (, roughly, "wealth"), and the word
qolu (, "stone"); however he is normally called simply "Bayin" in Mandarin by his friends and colleagues. He began working in 1976 and joined the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the same year. His involvement with the CCP began when he was 20 years old. From 1980 to 1982 he attended
Inner Mongolia Normal University, studying Political Education. In 1985 he was appointed mayor of
Ejin Horo Banner, and was promoted to
CCP Committee Secretary of Ejin Horo in 1988.
Communist Youth League Bayanqolu became the Deputy Secretary of the
Communist Youth League of
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1991, and Secretary in 1992, ascending to a department level (
tingjuji) rank at a mere 36 years of age, the youngest official of that rank in Inner Mongolia at the time. In 1993 he was transferred to work for the League's central organization in Beijing, taking the position of Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League (ranked fifth out of six secretaries), and Executive Secretary in 1998. At the Youth League, Bayanqolu worked under the leadership of
Li Keqiang and
Zhou Qiang. From 1994 to 1997, Bayanqolu enrolled in the postgraduate program at the Economics Management Department of
University of Jinan in
Shandong province. ==Rising through the ranks==