Chinese firm building life-size Titanic replica which will simulate 'being hit by an iceberg'

By James Griffiths, January 14, 2014

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A Chinese company plans to spend as much as 1 billion yuan ($165.4 million) on a life-sized replica of the RMS Titanic, the infamous British passenger liner which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912, causing the deaths of over 1,500 people and one terrible movie.

Sichuan-based Seven Star Energy Investment Group said at a press conference in Hong Kong Sunday that construction of the ship, based on the Titanic's surviving sister vessel, RMS Olympic, is expected to take two years. 

The ship, which will be permanently moored on the Qi river as part of a theme park, will feature a "6D" simulator enabling visitors to experience what it was like to be aboard the ship when it fatally struck an iceberg. 

"When the ship hits the iceberg, it will shake, it will tumble," Seven Star Investment Group CEO Su Shaojun said. "We will let people experience water coming in by using sound and light effects. They will think: 'The water will drown me. I must escape with my life'."

Except, unlike the approximately 1,635 people who died in the sinking of the Titanic, the visitors to this morbid theme park will definitely escape with their lives. 

Seven Star isn't the only company building a replica of the Titanic, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer announced plans to build Titanic II (not to be confused with the excellent "Titanic 2: Jack is Back") for a planned voyage from September to New York in 2016. 

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