Nearing the end of the scroll, we emerge here on the other side of a mist-filled gap. Houses and cross streets have been reoriented to face rightwards. This reorientation corresponds to a shift in vantage point. Having entered the city from the western Chang Gate, the first half of the city was presented from a southward-facing perspective as the scroll is unrolled from west to east across the width of the city. The reorientation that occurs here enables Wang Hui to present a northwards-facing (i.e. frontal) view of the Silk Commissioner's residence. Thus, while the Chang Gate and city streets are seen from the north looking south, the Silk Commissioner's residence is depicted from the south looking north. In each case the shift enables the artist to show these important sites in their fullest form much as they would be laid out in a diagram or site plan.
In this way the cityscape combines the features of a map with a panoramic view, and the underlying principle is the easy identification of those key sites that will orient the viewer within the narrative. We can contrast this view with Xu Yang's depiction in the Qianlong southern inspection tour scrolls, where the Silk Commissioner's compound is shown from the rear.
It is noteworthy that the Kangxi Emperor did not stay at the house of the provincial governor, as might be expected, but rather at the house of the Silk Commissioner. Suzhou was the center of the silk manufacturing industry in China, and silk was one of the commodities that was an imperial monopoly, the revenue from which went directly to the emperor's "privy purse," which refers to those monies used exclusively to underwrite the cost of running the imperial palaces. These monies were the private purview of the emperor his private, discretionary funds and they were not part of the government taxation system, which of course collected monies for the expenses of the government itself. Being a major source of funds for the imperial privy purse, Suzhou's silk industry was of special interest to China's rulers.