Full-Scale $155 Million Titanic Replica Is Being Built In China

Of all the things to blow $155 million on, a full size replica of the Titanic probably wouldn’t be first on most people’s lists. But that’s exactly what one Chinese theme park has done in a bid to attract new tourists.

The park in Suining, Sichuan Province, reportedly intends to recreate the ‘luxury and grandeur’ of the Titanic through their own giant version of the doomed liner, though presumably without the tragic ending.

Construction on the project began in 2014, with the theme park also building a replica version of the Southampton dock the Titanic sailed from in 1912. Su Shaojun, one of the investors in the project, says they expect the ship to attract between 2-5 million visitors from around the world each year.

According to the South China Morning Post, the idea has received a lot of flack on Chinese social media, with people arguing that the idea is an attempt to make money from one history’s most famous disasters.

‘Replicating a ship from a deadly shipwreck, what an ‘interesting’ business plan,’ one Weibo user wrote.

But regardless of the criticism, it seems like its too late for the park to turn back now. According to project manager Xu Junnian, the ship is nearly complete. ‘We’ve finished the construction of the main deck, with only two-and-a-half floors on top of the deck unfinished,’ he told SCMP.

The Titanic replica is set to open to tourists by the end of the year. Thankfully, with Sichuan a landlocked province, visitors want have to worry about meeting their own watery demise.

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