At the end of this year, a theme park in Suining, China is slated to finish a full-sized version of the Titanic.
Around $155 million has been spent on the replica, which is being built in a landlocked province. So no worries about it getting out to sea and meeting a grim fate!
Xu Junnian, the project manager, told SCMP, “We’ve finished the construction of the main deck, with only two-and-a-half floors on top of the deck unfinished.”
“Visitors will feel the luxury and the grandeur of Titanic,” added investor Shu Shaojun. The project will also recreate the surrounding wharf. While this might seem somewhat macabre, as visitors get to experience luxury before a terrible disaster, the attraction also promises to tell “touching stories” during the tour.
As SCMP points out, the attraction is being criticized online in China, as it’s seen as an attempt to cash in on a deadly accident.
Earlier this month, a one-to-one scale Gundam went up in China. That certainly seems like a happier replica to visit!
DISCUSSION
I know nothing about the tourism industry in China but this seems very weird. A ship that has nothing to do with China, that had a horrible ending, is going to be reconstructed in a landlocked province. Who is the market for this? Surely Chinese history is rich enough that they could’ve come up with something thematically relevant.