Time to give bunny a rest ...

A sleeping bunny drew 350,000 admirers as Taiwanese celebrated this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, bringing to 1,004,000 the total number of visits over five days to an exhibition in the northern city of Taoyuan, the local government said.

A woman in Taoyuan walks past a giant rabbit created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman.

Florentijn Hofman's creation, made of waterproof paper material, wood and polystyrene, is 25 meters tall.

"The number has beaten our expectations, we expected up to 200,000 visits a day," a government official said.

"Hofman had already impressed lots of locals last year, and perhaps people wanted to have a look at his new creation designed exclusively for Taoyuan," she said.

The creation, the official said, was inspired by ancient Chinese folklore about a goddess who lived on the moon and her companion — a rabbit which constantly pounded the elixir of life for her.

"Hofman said he felt the rabbit might need to take a break after working on the moon for thousands of years," the official said, explaining why the artist had posed the rabbit reclining against a bunker at a former naval air base.

The official said the artwork would remain in Taiwan after the festival, which also features installation and performance artists from China's mainland and Taiwan, closes on Sunday.

Hofman's yellow ducks drew millions of visitors when they were on display in three Taiwan cities last year.

Since 2007, the original duck designed by Hofman — which was 16.5 meters tall — has traveled to a number of places, including Brazil, Australia, the US and Hong Kong, on its journey around the world.