Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has made a trip to Singapore to promote his new book.

And he did what many tourists to Singapore have done: Take a optical illusion photo with the Merlion spitting into his mouth.

He got his photo-op with the half-lion, half fish after a book-signing session for his Memoirs of My Eight-Year Presidency: 2008 to 2016 at the Singapore Book Fair at Capitol.

Photos popular

The photos were put up on the ex-leader's Facebook page with the caption, “Singapore, I’m here!” and the hashtag #checkinginisnoteasy.

The post has over 34,000 likes in a day.

New memoir

The former Taiwanese leader's memoir details the achievements and mistakes of his eight-year run as president.

It is based on his own oral accounts as related to Hsiao Hsu-tsen, the former deputy secretary of the Presidential Office during Ma’s administration.

The book also discusses the Sunflower movement of 2014, which saw the cross-strait service trade agreement being shelved.

Taiwan’s economic development was put in jeopardy as massive protests in the island’s capital of Taipei broke out.

This moment was described as Ma's biggest regret during his presidency.

Singapore featured in book

Singapore is also mentioned in Ma's book.

This was due to the historic meeting between Ma and China’s Xi Jinping in Singapore in 2015.

It was the first encounter between the leaders of both sides since 1945.

Before he leaves Singapore on June 7, Ma is likely to visit the historic Sun Yat-sen Nanyang Memorial Hall and United Chinese Library.