Chinese mythology merely fantastic types of the bestiary sort. Sometimes the dragon is considered part of this category, related to it, or the ruler of all the swimming and crawling folk. This may include the giant marine turtle or tortoise Ao, the Bashe snake reputed to swallow elephants, a nine-headed snake monster reminiscent of the hydra known as Xiangliu, and the White Serpent from the novel "Legend of the White Snake". Various birds are found in Chinese mythology, some of them obviously based on real birds, other ones obviously not, and some in-between. The Crane is an example of a real type
The Seven-headed Serpent The sword was the only one that could kill the serpent; it would regrow a new blade for every head, if it broke. He was to stuff the bells with cotton and then wound it in the tail. It would put its heads up, one at a time, and he should cut each one off. He obeyed her and killed it. The animals of the island chased him, but be escaped. The Seven-headed Serpent "The Seven-headed Serpent" is a Greek fairy tale collected, as "Die Siebenkopfige Schlange," in Bernhard Schmidt's "Griechische Mahrchen". Andrew Lang included it in "The Yellow Fairy