"It's the Chinese Year of the Dragon, so we thought it would be a good theme for our school holiday programme," activities co-ordinator Ute Keck said yesterday.
"Kids love dragons. I think they like the whole mystical thing about them. We've been getting 45 to 50 kids a day.
"They've been coming in first thing in the morning and yelling and screaming and running around.
"It's not so good for the peace and quiet, but it's good to see the garden alive."
School holiday activities included a dragon hunt, with dragon eggs as prizes, storytelling, and lessons in the ancient Chinese board game Go, Ms Keck said.
According to Chinese legend, dragons live underground and emerge once a year to make rain and thunder.
The mythical creatures are a combination of the head of a camel, eyes of a devil, horns of a deer, scales of a carp, claws of an eagle, paws of a tiger and the ears of an ox.
Dragons will be prowling the Dunedin Chinese Garden until next Sunday.
