Beijing: A Chinese company is developing a USD 161 million life-sized replica of the Titanic that will open to the public in 2017, complete with a simulator which will recreate the moment the liner hit an iceberg and sank.
The Sichuan-based energy company behind the Titanic replica has announced that the ship will be ready by October, 2017.
The replica is being built to let people learn about the history of the ship which hit an iceberg and sank south of Newfoundland on April 15, 1912.
The company Seven Star Energy Investment Group first announced the project in 2013 when it said that it was hiring a high technology company from the US to provide designs based on the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the original Titanic.
The replica will be permanently docked at a theme park located on the Qi River.
Tickets to board the ship could start at around 3,000 yuan (about USD 484) for an ordinary fare. A luxury fare price could go for up to hundreds of thousands of yuan.
According to the website chinatopix.Com, if it is a complete replica of the original, the Chinese ship could carry two highly powerful steam engines and a low pressure turbine.
The Titanic replica will safely simulate iceberg collisions for the visitors, complete with light and sound effects.
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York City, US.
