Sentence:  At his favorite, familiar hotel on busy Orchard Road, he paid his fare, hefted his small bag and walked past the gorgeous garden with flowers and a fountain. Under the spray of water was a statue of the so-called <WSD>merlion</WSD>, the mythical beast that was the symbol of the tourist industry here. Its top half was a lion and the bottom half a fish. A couple of years ago, when he'd taken a stuffed <WSD>merlion</WSD> home to Lexi, she'd insisted on calling it Lion King Little Mermaid from her two favorite Disney movies at that time. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Often '''(Merlion)''': a symbolic creature having the head of a lion and the body of a fish, which is a national symbol of (Singapore); an image, statue, or other depiction of this creature. (from 1970s)