 During the Second Sino-Japanese War, many Chinese universities were forced to evacuate their campuses to avoid the Japanese invasion.In 1937, Tsinghua University, along with neighboring Peking University and Nankai University, merged to form the Changsha Temporary University in Changsha, which later became the National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming, Yunnan province.With the surrender of occupying Japanese forces at the end of World War II, Tsinghua University resumed operations in Beijing.