The ancient town of Shen'ao is mainly composed of the ancient village of Shen'ao, and also includes three villages of Xufan, Huanxi and Dipu. The total area is 10.5 hectares (of which the ancient village of Shen'ao is 7.5 hectares). These four villages line up along the west bank of Yingjia Creek. Shen'ao and Dipu are collectively referred to as Shenpu in history, and were developed after the first ancestor of the Shentu clan in the Southern Song Dynasty; Xu Fan was the King Xuyan of Jinhua who moved here in the Southern Song Dynasty, and developed for the in-laws of the Shentu clan, and so far mainly lives under the surname Xu. and Shentu surname. Huanxi Village was created by Zhou Lianxi, the tenth grandson of the great Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi, who moved to live here during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty was a period of rapid development in the history of Shen'ao Village. In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, there appeared a group of businessmen who became rich by trafficking in papyrus. Most of the buildings in the village were built during this period.