14 DAY TRIAL // The Titanic is remembered as a sad and tragic story that involved a lot of lives lost and promises broken as the “unsinkable ship” hit an iceberg and went down to the bottom of the sea. People are known for turning tragedy into comedy, and backwards, but how appropriate is it to turn the Titanic into an amusement park?
One Chinese attraction park decided that a replica of the Titanic will make the perfect attraction for tourists and was willing to pay $165 million in order to build it. The company handling the construction of the park decided to take advantage of one of the world's biggest tragedies and turn it into an amusement opportunity.
The Seven Star Energy Investment Group is the company that funded the project in an attempt to come up with a one-of-a-kind type of attraction. But aren't amusement parks meant to be funny? There is nothing funny in the tragedy of people dying at sea.
The park is going to be built in the central province of Sichuan, quite far away from the ocean actually, maybe to avoid paranoia, and will be completed in 2016. The project has planned to build a replica of the original ship and to set up a museum and a simulation room for people to experience what the passenger of the Titanic felt in those horrible moments.
“When the ship hits the iceberg, it will shake, it will tumble. 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.’” Su Shaojun, chief executive of the funding company, says, as noted by The Telegraph.
Some might say this is a bit too much. Well, it kind of is, but executives argue that Asia was in need of a Titanic museum and that they are just trying to focus on the positive parts of the story and the impact the movie had. The romance between Kate and Leo seemed to have impacted them really hard.
The construction will be based both on the actual ship and the influences of the famous 1997 movie that according to the designers “represent the spiritual richness of human civilization.” The construction is scheduled to begin early this year and will also feature a man-made beach and accommodation replica for guests.