Altun Shan National Nature Reserve (simplified Chinese: 阿尔金山; traditional Chinese: 阿爾金山; pinyin: Ā'ěr jīnshān) (literally, "O You Golden Mountain") is a large, arid area in the southeast of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, on the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau and the southern edge of the Tarim Basin in northwest China.

The Altun Shan Reserve is an elongated triangular area on the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, just south of the Tarim Basin.

Most of the reserve is in the "North Tibetan Plateau-Kunlun Mountains alpine desert" ecoregion, an area characterized by extreme aridity, high winds, and very cold winters.

Qaidam is the Mongolian word for 'salt', and the region is one of gravelly desert and some saline meadows and salt lakes.

[6] The reserve provides space outside of human development for some of the largest herds of hoofed in Asia: the vulnerable Tibetan wild yak (Bos mutus) (an estimated 10,000), wild ass (30,000), and Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) (up to 75,000).