With their straw hats and oversized sunglasses, they looked like any other rural tour group as they posed for a photo in the city.
But most of the 23 senior citizens who toured Guangzhou last Thursday had never been to the provincial capital - less than an hour's drive from their communal home in Beixing township. All are former leprosy patients long cured of the disease yet forever marked by its scars.
Others had not seen the city for 50 years or more. Some had been sent to Guangzhou in recent years for medical treatment.
'The few of us who have been to Guangzhou have never had time to have fun here,' said 71-year-old Yu Raofen. But for fingers worn down to the knuckles, there is little to set Mr Yu apart from any other spry senior citizen looking years younger than his age.
Indeed, Mr Yu's small stature, coupled with immense confidence and poise, remind one of Deng Xiaoping. His outgoing personality has made Mr Yu his community's spokesman.
The community of former leprosy patients is one of 63 spread across Guangdong. Together, these so-called leper villages are home to about 3,900 people.