The Merlion is an imaginary creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. The original 8-metre male Merlion (Malay: Singa-Laut) and the 2-metre cub were located to their present location and current home which is adjacent to One Fullerton, on a newly constructed 2,500 square metre park called Merlion Park. This area is a very popular tourist attraction and "the Merlion has been erected as a symbol to welcome all visitors to Singapore". It has since become the official tourism icon of Singapore. This video show the 40 tonnes grand Merlion (water-spouting, half-fish, half-lion Singapore icon) with its powerful spirting of water stream into the Singapore River creating image of rainbow on water during the day. The small cub installed behind the Merlion is shown with its lesser water stream.
There is a promontory with terraced seating, and a viewing deck to hold up to 300 people and a boat landing point that allows visitors to disembark from river taxis. The viewing deck provides photographers with unrivalled vistas of the Merlion against the city skyline and the scenic Marina Bay, including famous landmarks such as The Fullerton Singapore and Esplanade Theatres on the Bay. The viewing deck doubles up as a venue for outdoor performances.
The Merlion attracts more than one million visitors a year to this Merlion Park to photograph this world famous Singapore icon.
The smaller Merlion statue was also built by Mr Lim and located at the same site 28m behind its bigger counterpart. The Merlion Cub measures two metres high and weighs three tonnes. The body is made of cement fondue, the skin from porcelain plates and eyes from small red teacups. Glass sculptured waves in hues of blue were built at the base of the Merlion and the cub. These waves are illuminated by spotlights.The Cub also spouted water and was installed in a water pool feature. There are two operating programmes for the Merlion's water spout: a 15 metre jet and an eight metre jet. The Merlion cub has a similar water spout that spouts treated water instead of sea water. The Merlion's spout is contained within the pool feature it sits in. In addition to the water spout, both the Merlion and the Merlion cub have cascading water overflowing from their wave-like pedestals.