China's life-size Titanic replica ran out of money before it ever opened

The South China Morning Post reported on 12 April 2026 that a full-scale replica of the Titanic in Daying county, southwest China's Sichuan province, lies abandoned — its rusting hull in an overgrown lot, eleven years after entrepreneur Su Shaojun launched the plan. At a 2014 press event in Hong Kong to unveil the project, Su appeared alongside actor Bernard Hill, who played the captain in James Cameron's 1997 film, and said his company aimed to build a world-class tourist resort.

Su felt he was on to a sure-fire winner: the film had grossed over US$200 million in China alone, and local governments across the country were pouring billions into cultural and tourism projects to drive growth. Convinced of success, the veteran entrepreneur bet everything, selling his stakes in 13 hydropower stations across Zhejiang and Sichuan provinces to fund the vision.

The money ran out before the 269-metre-long, 28-metre-wide vessel was ever completed; interior decoration never even started. The SCMP piece describes the project as a symbol of the excess of that investment wave.

Su sold his stakes in 13 hydropower stations to fund it; the money ran out before completion, leaving a rusting 269-metre hull and vast debts.

Demand was read off a film's box office, not any feasibility study.

Funding came from selling income-producing assets, leaving no reserve.

The project rode a tourism investment wave with no plan for the wave ending.

A single-attraction resort needed everything to work at once: ship, park, visitors.

Betting the entire balance sheet on one spectacle asset leaves no cushion when the tourist wave you assumed never arrives.

As of April 2026 the hull sits abandoned and unfinished in Daying county, with the report citing vast debts; no revival of the project is mentioned.