At the Jinggangshan Revolution Museum in Jiangxi province, two primary school students stood before a jar of salt and told a story from nearly a century ago — in English.

"This jar of salt shows the deep love between the Red Army and the people," Zhou Mengyang, a student from Jinggangshan Experimental School, said as she introduced the story of "sharing salt in hard times".

Beside her, Fu Junxiong, another student from the same school, also practiced telling the story, which reflects the close bond between the Red Army and local people during the revolutionary years in Jinggangshan.

"I hope more foreign visitors can learn about Jinggangshan's revolutionary culture, and I want to tell them more stories about its revolutionary past," Zhou said.

The two students are members of a bilingual volunteer guide team formed in March. The team has 20 students from grades two to six, who are learning to introduce the revolutionary stories of their hometown in both Chinese and English.

Behind the program is Mao Haofu, head of Mao Binghua's studio and a bilingual lecturer devoted to promoting Jinggangshan's revolutionary heritage.

The studio is named after Mao Binghua, Mao Haofu's grandfather and a former curator of the Jinggangshan Revolution Museum, who devoted decades to researching and telling stories about Jinggangshan.

Mao Haofu said the idea first came to him in 2016, when he saw foreign visitors coming to Jinggangshan with English interpreters arranged by event organizers.

"Some interpreters had good language skills, but they were not necessarily familiar with local history," Mao said. "At that time, I felt that Jinggangshan needed to improve its capacity to receive foreign visitors. I thought we should build our own bilingual reception team."

Since March, Mao and other trainers have taught the students local history, English pronunciation, basic language skills, tour guide etiquette and simulated tour guide skills.

For Mao, the goal is not to turn the children into professional interpreters, but to help them understand the stories first and then tell them naturally to visitors from different cultural backgrounds.

"Jinggangshan should have its own English-speaking guides," he said. "These children are learning to tell the stories of their hometown with confidence."

The program grew out of an earlier trial last year, when Mao helped receive a study tour group from Africa and invited local students to tell stories about the Jinggangshan spirit to foreign guests.

"They told the stories very well," Mao said. "We found that children could use a simple and sincere way to help foreign visitors understand the spirit behind the history."

Mao's own connection with Jinggangshan storytelling runs deep.

After studying finance at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom and working in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi, Mao returned to Jinggangshan to engage in the research and promotion of revolutionary culture.

Mao has delivered thousands of bilingual lectures on the Jinggangshan spirit and introduced local revolutionary stories to international visitors from many countries.

Jinggangshan, known as the cradle of the Chinese revolution, is where the Communist Party of China established its first rural revolutionary base in 1927. Today, its revolutionary sites, museums, and study tours continue to attract visitors seeking to understand that history.

Mao said telling Jinggangshan stories to the world requires more than direct translation.

"When we tell these stories to foreign visitors, we need to explain not only what happened, but also why it matters," he said.

He hopes more young people in Jinggangshan will join the bilingual volunteer guide program and help carry the city's stories further.

"Jinggangshan has stories that deserve to be heard by more people," Mao said. "I hope we can help spread the Jinggangshan spirit further."