Soar, by Xia Hong, features a big horse flying through the sky. Photos provided to China Daily

Xia Hong, 25, has an intelligence equivalent to a 5-year-old's. She can't read or write, or do double-digit addition and subtraction.

But she is artistically gifted - she's a professional painter.

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Xia's talent was spotted by Hou Yun, a famous painter in Chongqing municipality, who saw her paintings for the first time in 2007. He immediately offered to become her teacher.

Hou admires Xia's novelty in her masterpieces, which he says is very pleasant to the eyes. "It's very unusual to see such a quality in paintings," Hou says. "She is a real artist."

To Hou, an artist must possess three qualities: simplicity, persistence and uniqueness.

Xia has all of them. "She is endowed with a pure mind. She has persisted with her painting dream for more than 10 years with more than 700 works, including watercolor paintings, gouache and oil paintings," Hou says.

Xia has two big dreams: To hold a solo exhibition (she has already realized that) and to own her personal studio where people can observe her at work and buy her art.

Xia has had two exhibitions in Chongqing - one in 2006 and another in 2008. The second dream is challenging for Xia, who comes from a single-parent family.

Her mother, Xia Maoxian, spent all her savings to send Xia Hong for professional training to become who she is today.

Of all the paintings, Xia Maoxian's favorite is a painting named Soar that portrays a big horse flying through the sky. "Through that painting, I knew that she has a colorful dream, just like the big horse that soars toward a colorful sky," Xia Maoxian says.