In this appreciation, translated by Giacomo Bruni, the critic Luo Yiping, a longtime friend of the artist, discusses the landscape painting of Hu Jiang, who turned to mountain and water painting after achievements in ceramics, calligraphy and public sculpture. Hu Jiang absorbed the emphasis on real-life experience and sketching of the Lingnan masters Guan Shanyue and Li Xiongcai and the fresh style of his teacher Chen Jinzhang, while integrating the vigorous northern brushwork of Li Keran and of his teacher Li Baolin. The essay identifies three defining qualities. The first is “profound vigour and moist richness”: monumental compositions such as Warm Spring in the Apricot Grove (6 × 13 m), structured by the “dragon vein” and by layered ink techniques that give Lingnan scenery northern grandeur, informed by his calligraphy and sculpture. The second is “restraint and quiet elegance”, achieved through clouds that shape the mountains and guide the viewer into a Daoist realm free of human traces. The third is “poetic vitality”, through which observed nature is transformed into living, emotionally resonant imagery. The author describes Hu Jiang as a southern artist painting in a northern manner.