under the new Sino-Soviet Treaty to counter Imperial Japanese aggressions. The Soviet Union dispatched a volunteer air force to Qingyunpu Airport to help China fight the Japanese. Captain Anton Alekseyevich Gubenko and Major Liu Zhesheng among others all shot down Japanese bogeys during a major air battle over Nanchang on 26 June 1938. The airport was destroyed as a result of the prolonged fighting and attrition from 1937 into mid-1939, and was rebuilt after the end of the war in 1945. People's Republic of China After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the airport was renovated and used for aircraft testing by Hongdu Machinery Factory (now Hongdu Aviation). From March 1981 to early 1982, when the runway of Nanchang Xiangtang Airport was being improved, Qingyunpu temporarily served as Nanchang's public airport for nine months. With the expansion of the city of Nanchang, Qingyunpu Airport became surrounded by the increasingly urban Qingyunpu District and restricted its development. Several major thoroughfares are cut off by the airport, causing Qingyunpu to be known as the most congested district of Nanchang. On 23 December 2009, the Jiangxi provincial government reached an agreement with Aviation Industry Corporation of China, the parent company of Hongdu Aviation, to build the new Yaohu Airport in the Nanchang Aviation Industrial City to replace Qingyunpu Airport. Construction for Yaohu Airport began in November 2016, and it was opened on 16 August 2018. Qingyunpu Airport is expected to close by the end of 2018. References Buildings and structures in China destroyed during World War II Airports in Jiangxi Transport in Nanchang Airports established in 1935 1935 establishments in China Defunct airports in China Chinese Civil War Second Sino-Japanese War Republic of China Air Force Hongdu