Hu already reached her retirement age four years ago, but museum officials did not want her to leave.

With a monthly pension of some 3,000 yuan ($476), Hu receives an additional 1,680 yuan each month from the museum as a retired guide who still works.

"We hope she can be China's first gray-haired guide and continue working here as long as she is physically fit," deputy curator Zhu Zhangyi says.

Hu has visited many parts of the Sichuan quake zone and has been invited to take charge of the training of young guides in museums in four quake-hit counties.

She is also in charge of training guides for the Nanjing Yun Brocade Museum in Jiangsu province and the Chengdu Shu Brocade and Embroidery Museum.

"I always tell young guides to use their hearts to feel, understand and fall in love with exhibits so that visitors may love and remember them, too," Hu says.

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