You can do it, but you'll have to dig away from the plant so you don't shovel prune too many of the armandii roots.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Planting a hard prune variety along with a no-prune variety, both of which get to be BIG vines, is IMO just asking for maintenance problems down the road. Inevitably they will grow together and intermingle and removing the pruned portions of the type 3 out of the grasp of the armandii will be a headache.

Why not plant something else to disguise the bare base of the armandii? Any compatible perennial or small shrub will do the trick.

I'm with gardengal48, I've had a conifer in front of my armandii which I've just ripped out to replace with a small bamboo.

Thanks a lot. I probably underestimated the tangling of the tendrils. And how tall gets C. tangutica after 2 or 3 years (with pruning every spring)? I am afraid I was mislead by one my mother grows in a container.
Well, thanks,
cheers, Lin