In Pics: China builds life-size replica of Titanic to boost tourism

The Titanic is being brought back from the deep, more than a century after its ill-fated maiden voyage, at a landlocked Chinese theme park.(Image Credit: AFP)

The Titanic is being brought back from the deep, more than a century after its ill-fated maiden voyage, at a landlocked Chinese theme park where tourists can soon splash out for a night on a fullscale replica.

The project's main backer was inspired to recreate the world's most infamous cruise liner by the 1997 box office hit of the same name -- once the world's top-grossing film and wildly popular in China.

Investor Su Shaojun says he was motivated to finance the audacious, 260-metre-long (850-foot-long) duplicate to keep memories of the Titanic alive.

It has taken six years -- longer than the construction of the original Titanic -- plus 23,000 tons of steel, more than a hundred workers and a hefty one billion yuan ($153.5 million) price tag.

A worker sweeping inside a replica of the Titanic ship in China.

Everything from the dining room to the luxury cabins and even the door handles are styled on the original Titanic.

It forms the centrepiece of a Sichuan province theme park more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the sea.

The site features a replica of Southampton Port seen in James Cameron's 1997 disaster epic, where Leonardo DiCaprio's fictional character Jack swings on board after winning his ticket in a bet.

An aerial photo of a still-under-construction replica of the Titanic ship in Sichuan, China.

Workers walking at the site of a still-under-construction replica of the Titanic ship in China.