Azhuodi village is located in the southeast of Shilin Yi Autonomous County, having convenient transportation with Kunming-Luzhou Highway on its side. It is 11 kilometers away from county town. Azhuodi Village is an ecological ethnic village and ethnic unity demonstration village named by Kunming Municipal People's Government. It is also one of the first batch of “Yi House” ecotourism villages opened to the public by Shilin County.

According to historical records, residents of Azhuodi Village have been Sani people, and all the names of people, mountains, places and villages in this area are in Sani language. Azhuodi Village was formerly called “Gantangzi Village”, which is pronounced as “Azhuodi” in Sani language, meaning a beautiful place embraced by green mountains. This name is the same as that in the Sani folk narrative poem Ashima that “Azhuodi is a good place with high pine trees covering the mountains”, therefore Gantangzi Village has been renamed “Azhuodi”.

The embroidery pattern of Sani people in Azhuodi Village comes not from the air but life. Not only unique mountainous landscapes and specialties but also commonly seen flowers and animals have become various and colorful patterns after their simulation, refinement, generalization, careful design, and smart layout. Rain Flower, Portulaca grandiflora, Alangium chinense and other flower-related patterns  represent Sani people's aesthetic appreciation and prayer for blessing. And the lively little tigers are Sani people’s totem.

Based on maintaining and inheriting traditional Yi embroidery, new folk patterns have been developed continuously. The process of Azhuodi embroidery mainly includes: confirming pattern, giving sample to skilled embroidery craftsmen for reference to embroider small design pieces, and then giving them to embroidery factory to process into complete products like handbags, kerchiefs, clothes, shoe upper coverings, table cloths, sheets, umbrella covers, sofa towels, and ties, etc. Scale production is achieved in the form of “Embroidery Association + ten factories + ten households”. The embroidered bags, belts, quilt cover, vests, wallets, sofa towels, table cloths, hanging decorations, kerchiefs, and clothes, etc. have become tourism souvenirs. Azhuodi Village has established “Shilin Azhuodi Ethnic Embroidery Products Development Technology Association” with over 2,000 members and more than 20 fixed employees.

The backbone is the ethnic folk embroidery factory founded by Pu sisters (Pu Fang, Pu Hong, and Pu Fei), who brought Sani embroidery from Azhuodi to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hainan and other coastal regions in the 1990s. Now their embroideries have been sold nationwide and exported to countries and regions including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, France, Canada, and the United States, etc. They also participated in large domestic and international exhibitions like Kunming Fair, Canton Fair, and CAEXPO with their products greatly praised. They exhibited their embroidery and held a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, where their embroideries were sold out soon. At present, the traditional ethnic folk embroidery of Azhuodi has factories in the village, office in Kunming, and marketing network nationwide to sell products to domestic and foreign markets through major domestic clients and agents. The embroideries are well known at home and abroad with the annual output value of more than RMB 2 million. As the only opening “Yi House” ecotourism village in Shilin County, Azhuodi has made great achievements in these years. Visitors can choose dining and staying overnight, or they can enjoy farmhouse meals, visit local orchards, and visit and buy Sani embroideries. The unique Sani embroidery will expand and strengthen further according to market positioning to meet the needs of domestic and foreign markets. As a light-hearted handicraft industry, embroidery has many practitioners who take this as a main source of family income, having an annual output value of more than RMB 8 million. A brand has been formed and recognized with increasing market sales.

In 2005, Azhuodi Village of Shilin Yi Autonomous County was included in the first batch of Yunnan Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List upon the approval of Department of Culture of Yunnan Province.