Garden of the Twelve Friends

Garden of the Twelve Friends
Park	Shanghai Disneyland
Land / area	Gardens of Imagination
Type	Walkthrough garden
Opened	June 16, 2016
Status	Operating

Garden of the Twelve Friends is a walkthrough garden in Gardens of Imagination at Shanghai Disneyland, the Disney park at Shanghai Disney Resort in Pudong, Shanghai, China. Set along a garden wall in the park's central hub, it presents the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac as large mosaic murals, each animal represented by a Disney or Disney·Pixar character. It opened with the park on June 16, 2016, is presented by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and remains in operation as of November 2026.

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History

The garden was created for Shanghai Disneyland as a deliberate meeting of Disney storytelling and Chinese tradition. Where other castle parks place a hub in front of the castle, Shanghai substituted a set of gardens, and the Twelve Friends wall became their best-known feature. Shanghai Disney Resort unveiled the twelve pairings ahead of opening, presenting them as a way of sending good wishes to guests during the season of family reunion, and noting that each character had been chosen to fit its zodiac animal while keeping its own personality. The Sheep pairing was announced in honour of 2015, the Year of the Sheep, before the park itself had opened.

The garden opened as an opening-day attraction on June 16, 2016. It has since become a seasonal focus at Chinese New Year, when it is dressed as a New Year Wishing Garden and the current year's animal is given the place of honour. For the Year of the Snake celebrations from January 15 to February 14, 2025, for example, decorations centred on Gary, the snake from Zootopia 2, were hung around the Snake mosaic.

Experience

Guests follow the wall at their own pace, finding one mosaic vignette for each sign, worked in coloured tile and framed by flowering planting. The twelve pairings as installed at opening were: the Rat, Remy from Ratatouille; the Ox, Babe the Blue Ox from Paul Bunyan; the Tiger, Tigger from Winnie the Pooh; the Rabbit, Thumper from Bambi; the Dragon, Mushu from Mulan; the Snake, Kaa from The Jungle Book; the Horse, Maximus from Tangled; the Sheep, the Jolly Holiday lambs from Mary Poppins; the Monkey, Abu from Aladdin; the Rooster, Alan-A-Dale from Robin Hood; the Dog, Pluto; and the Pig, Hamm from Toy Story.

The selection mixes famous faces with deep cuts — Babe, the Jolly Holiday lambs and Alan-A-Dale are far less familiar than Tigger or Pluto — and that obscurity is part of the appeal, as guests hunt for their own birth-year sign and pose beside it for photographs. The line-up has not been entirely static: Thumper was succeeded as the Rabbit by Judy Hopps from Zootopia in 2023, the Year of the Rabbit, while other swaps have been seasonal and provisional rather than new mosaics — Remy gave way briefly to Mickey and Minnie for the Year of the Rat in 2020, Gary was featured provisionally over Kaa for the Year of the Snake in 2025, and Bullseye from Toy Story was featured provisionally over Maximus for the Year of the Horse in 2026.

There is no queue, no height restriction and no separate charge; the garden is simply part of a stroll through Gardens of Imagination, near the Fantasia Carousel and the Wandering Moon Teahouse.

See also

• Gardens of Imagination
• Fantasia Carousel
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Shanghai Disneyland
• List of Shanghai Disneyland attractions