When the Japanese launched the full-scale invasion in China in 1937, modern geology had been founded in the country for 20 years. During the war that lasted until 1945, Chinese geology underwent profound changes. Before the war, there were in China a total of 9 geological institutes and 4 college departments of geology. During the war, the Chinese government moved its capital from Nanjing in central east China to Chongqing in the southwest of the country. Meanwhile, most of the geological institutes also moved to the west part of China, which dramatically altered the distribution of Chinese geological institutes as well as the course of the Chinese geological development. The new institutional distribution not only influenced the choices of areas for fieldwork, but also varied the contents of Chinese geological studies. Due to the urgent demand from the wartime industry, finding mineral resources became a main task of Chinese geologists. Realizing the significant role of geology in the war, both the government and relevant enterprises promoted the development of geological survey. About 6 new geological institutes and 5 additional college geological departments were established during the wartime. They actively advanced applied geology but held up the development of theoretical geology, such as palaeontology and palaeoanthropology which had progressed quickly in China before the war. Despite the serious war-related impediments to international geological exchanges, some European geologists still came to China and so did many Chinese students who studied overseas. And these people continued to disseminate Western geological theories. The wartime was a very important period for the development of modern Chinese geology. It was during this time when most of the early Chinese geologists grew up, the main Chinese geological issues emerged, and the long-influential Chinese tradition favoring fieldwork actually formed.