A hotel in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is secretly being used as an Ebola quarantine to keep the virus from spreading into China, according to a report from Voice of America.

The Hotel Canton appears like many upscale hotels in the port city, except that while it hosts business conferences and tourists, it is also being used as a base to quarantine recently arrived travelers from Ebola-stricken regions of Africa.

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VOA reports that more than 90 people from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo are currently staying at the hotel. Along with public security officers and doctors, they occupy up to five floors of the state-owned hotel.

Guests who are being monitored for Ebola don 't have to pay for their room, and can move freely throughout the city as long as they carry a GPS-equipped mobile phone and submit to twice-daily health checks. 

The 35-story hotel is located close to Guangdong Guest House, government offices, Lido Hotel and Huifu West Road. And according to the hotel's website, it features 430 guestrooms and suites with a standard room measuring 28 square meters. It also offers recreational facilities including a ballroom, massage room, swimming pool and sauna.

Thousands of Africans travel to China monthly, according to official statistics, and about 150 arrive from Ebola hot zone countries on a daily basis. Guangzhou has the largest community of Africans in Asia, according to official statistics.

Earlier this month, China state news agency Xinhua reported that authorities in Guangzhou were giving cellphones to travelers entering the region from the Ebola hot zones of West Africa in order to track them for 21 days.

Travelers arriving from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone began receiving health care packages that include a free cell phone with local SIM card, a thermometer, and a local map.

"Passengers who get the phone should keep it turned on for the following 21 days," said Wu Huiming, deputy head of the bureau. "In this way, disease control personnel can track and contact them as quickly as possible."

However, according to VOA, the African visitors aren't initially told that the Hotel Canton is the only place in the city they can stay. A trader from Sierra Leone told VOA it wasn't until after he visited several hotels that someone told him to go to the Hotel Canton.  

A trader from the Democratic Republic of Congo said hotel staff members change the towels but not the bed sheets. She believes the hotel is burning the linens when the guests are done with them. Additionally, after each African guest leaves the hotel, the mattresses are reportedly thrown away.

So far no guest has been diagnosed with Ebola.

TagsGuangzhou Hotel Used as China’s Secret Ebola Quarantine, Hotel Canton, Guangzhou