A Chinese company will spend CN¥1bn (US$160m, €177.6m, £95.4m) on building a full-scale Titanic replica to be permanently moored in the Qijiang river, Sichuan province, China.

The replica ship will be exactly the same size as the original - 269m (882ft) long and 28m (92ft) wide - and will be permanently docked in a reservoir as part of a tourism resort.

The ship, which will be based on the original ship rather than the computer-generated model from the 1997 movie, will include a high-tech simulation cockpit, where visitors can experience the moment when the original Titanic met its fate by crashing into an iceberg.

"I watched the movie Titanic many times, and I have long been touched by the humanity revealed in the catastrophe," said Su Shaojun, chair of Seven Star Energy Investment speaking to China Daily. He added that he would like to teach people about responsibility by letting women and children go first during the disaster re-creations.

The replica was designed by US company GC High-Tech and is being constructed by the Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry. The replica is expected to be completed by 2016.

The doomed Titanic cruise liner was heading from Southampton, UK, to New York City when it hit an iceberg on 14 April 1912. More than two-thirds of the 2,224 people on board were killed and the last survivor of the accident died five years ago.