During World War II, the British biochemist Joseph Needham (1900–95) traveled to the wartime capital of the Chinese resistance in Chongqing, Sichuan Province, in the southwest of the country. In a village on the outskirts of the city, Needham toured the offices of the relocated Academia Sinica, the national academy of sciences and social sciences first established in 1928. The scientists had left behind their laboratories and equipment in the large coastal cities in exchange for bomb shelters in cliff-side caves and farmhouses in the countryside. Nevertheless, Needham was deeply impressed by the fortitude of Chinese scientists in harsh wartime conditions.