Escape the city and head away from the tourist trail and into the lush fertile valleys of the old citys countrysidecuandixia was founded during the ming dynasty 13681644 by members of the han clan who moved from shanxi provinceaccording to legend a villager named han shoude who bore a strong resemblance to kangxi emperor became a monk in service to the same emperor and built many of the grand courtyards of cuandixia with imperial funding towards the end of the qing dynasty cuandixia p