Kiwis Hadleigh and Hannah Churchill met many moons ago at university in Wellington, New Zealand. Hadleigh arrived in Shanghai in March 2008 to work for an advertising agency, and Hannah joined a year later after their honeymoon landed them back in Shanghai. They have called Shanghai home ever since, and now have two children, Harrison/Harry (6) and Adalyn/Addie (3).
Hannah started out working with a couple of design-related companies, and she began designing her own projects and quickly built a portfolio of restaurants and bars. Just as Harry was turning two in 2017, the couple decided to take the plunge to work together full-time, building their interior design company, hcreates, as a business.
Prior to kids, they were both involved in sports in Shanghai; Hadleigh played cricket for the Bashers and Hannah was heavily involved in Touch Rugby. They now keep fit through F45 and Z&B, and are also active in the New Zealand/Australian community.
Favorite Restaurant in Shanghai
Our go-to with the kids is Din Tai Fung in IAPM. The kids eat their weight in xialongbao and noodles. But we still always leave some room to go up to Level 5 for Shanghai’s best ice cream and coffee at Luneurs.
Favorite Date Night Spot for Mom and Dad
Due to the nature of our work, we are involved in designing lots of restaurant and bar projects. Shanghai is a never-ending sea of new venues, so our list of places to try is constantly growing, and we never make it to them all and rarely get back to the same place twice. That said, Mavis on Wuding Lu has become a recent favorite.
Favorite Family Activity in Shanghai
We made a great decision to get annual passes at Shanghai Disney last year, so we have been getting to the park quite a bit over this past year, which was particularly enjoyable whilst it was a bit quieter.
Favorite Spot to De-Stress
We like to jump on the scooters with the kids and try and discover new parks to get amongst the trees and let the kids run around on the grass (Bao’an dependant). Our kids love exploring and looking for bugs, so they are easily entertained when we are in nature.
Favorite Family Movie
We haven’t quite got everyone on the same page yet. Frozen has been recently discovered by our 3-year-old, who now lives in her Elsa dress and sings that song… a lot. Zootopia is also a winner, along with The Incredibles.
Latest Family Activity Discovery
We have got both kids onto bikes recently, so it’s been cool taking them to open spaces to ride around. The kids are also currently in love with anything in a pond, so we have been spending more and more time as the weather warms up catching and releasing tadpoles down at Xujiahui Park. It can be hard to recreate the outdoors of New Zealand in urban Shanghai sometimes, but we try our best.
READ MORE: 8 of Shanghai's Best Parks
For more on hcreates visit www.hcreates.design or scan the QR.
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