Being a teacher is rewarding. On your best days, you feel emotionally fulfilled knowing all the hours of planning, prepping, and instructing are helping shape the next generation and move humanity forward. On your less-than-best days you have a migraine, are covered in every possible bodily fluid, haven’t eaten or used the bathroom in the past 12 hours, and your significant other is feeling neglected because you still have four hours of homework to grade before tomorrow. And because so many teachers work weekends coaching games, leading rehearsals, and hosting speech and debate competitions, we often miss out on some of the finer experiences Beijing has to offer on the weekends.

That’s why I was so excited when I saw that TRB Forbidden City would be hosting brunch six days a week! So I grabbed two of my favorite educators and prepared to let TRB founder Ignace Lecleir and his exceptional team pamper me.

In my opinion, a great restaurant is not just about the food. It is also about creating an environment and an overall feeling. TRB Forbidden City not only creates a feeling of high-end luxury enjoyed with casual ease, but also takes advantage of its surroundings to give you a true sense of place. This is a meal that could only happen in Beijing. And the view of the forbidden city through the full-length window, juxtaposed with the pristine white and gold tables inside, sums up the Beijing experience. This is the crossroads of the ancient and the modern.

We were offered a welcome glass of champagne to sip as we chatted and looked over the menu. The four-course brunch is RMB 488 per person and free-flow options are available. Prior to ordering, three lovely surprises appeared on our table. A picture-perfect cone of tuna and caviar filled with wasabi cream, delectable cheese puffs, and a pumpkin truffle soup. All were as delicious as they were photogenic, and were followed up by an incredible basket of bread and pastries accompanied by fresh jam and lemon butter so good that I nearly ate a spoonful of it on its own.

But of course, there was more. My inner New Yorker cheered when a stunning tray of gravlax was wheeled out and carved tableside as we enjoyed foie gras terrines, asparagus salad, and duck ham brought to life by just enough citrus to keep everything fresh and light.

Then came the egg course. I love eggs Benedict. So much so that it would be one of the dishes I would choose for my last meal, but fairly often it is disappointing in its execution. This was an absolute triumph. A perfectly cooked egg with a runny center was covered in exactly the correct amount of hollandaise (I always need to ask for extra so this was impressive) and sitting on top of a soft, yet evenly toasted English muffin.

For the main courses, we each selected a different dish. The yellow croaker was light and well cooked, the rib eye a perfect medium rare and very well-seasoned, but my favorite was by far the pigeon. Juicy with a crisp skin and sitting on top of a mushroom puree that complimented the richness of the meat.

The best course, however, was dessert. I love soufflé, mostly because I am an abject failure at making them myself. This chocolate soufflé was rich and decadent and worth every second of cardio I will need to do to work it off. The entire meal had been elevated by the wine pairings presented with each course. Light, crisp whites and deep, unguent reds paraded past our table, each better than the last, until desert culminated in choices of moscato, limoncello, and cognac. As I sat sipping my post-meal port, chatting with my friends, and starring out over an iconic view I couldn’t help but be grateful to the TRB team. What they offer is so much more than food for the body, it’s food for the soul. All of these educators are separated from their families and spend their days and many of their nights and weekends serving children and parents. It’s rewarding, and it’s exhausting. But for a few hours, we were the ones being taken care of. All the extra touches normally reserved for VIPs were gifted to us, and as I looked around, I noticed all the other tables were greeted with the same care and attention to detail.

If the pressures of the past few years are taking their toll and you find yourself needing a little extra TLC, find a few educator friends and book a table. It won’t make up for the family events missed or make the pile of homework you still need to grade disappear, but it might recharge your battery enough to go back to your work as the best version of yourself. TRB Forbidden City offers brunch service every day except Tuesday. To make a reservation scan the QR code below.

Images: Ana Lourenco, Julie Wolf

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We did it! We made it through Golden Week with our kids home by our side 24/7, plagued by far too many cold and rainy days. Suffice to say, I’m quite thrilled and proud of myself for not having lost my temper, even coming to thoroughly enjoy my kid’s company on the best days. Now that we survived this period, however, we deserve some serious R&R. How does a spa treatment that will completely transport you through a soothing sound bath and delicious scents while you get a lovely massage, followed by a yummy snack bar, sound?

Yes, please! Join us on an indulgent afternoon as we discover a spa that goes beyond the ordinary in the video below.

YuSpa, conveniently located at Chaowai SOHO in the heart of Beijing, was introduced to me by a friend and dubbed her favorite spa in the capital. When you enter its elegant black and gold premises, you are ushered into a MUJI-esque waiting room and served a refreshing drink. Your masseuse will also introduce herself (mine was called Clover) and assist you in choosing your own personalized massage oil blend. Each wooden table holds a tray of some 30 essential oils, many of which are organically sourced and expertly curated. You get to mix in two or three scents depending on which level of spa experience you pay for, along with a base oil: grapeseed for dry skin, avocado for aging skin, so on and so forth.

Before stepping into the massage room, our masseuse made it a point to show us that the air within the rooms had been filtered to pass for forest air. The temperature is tightly regulated to hit that sweet spot between warm and cold. When you step into the minimalist massage rooms meant to resemble infinite space, you don’t quite know where the walls start and the ceiling begins. You feel endless.

Included in the price at YuSpa are fluffy room slippers that my friend likens to stepping on clouds, which you are welcome to bring home. The amenities were truly extraordinary, and even include an eyebrow pencil for after-massage touch-up, contact lens cases, and solution for storage.

Big on allowing you to be in charge, the spa also empowers you to choose the background music for your massage. Choices include rain, ocean, and forest sounds, or a classical piano soundtrack.

The massage started with a clear ringing from a Tibetan singing bowl, a familiar sound for me as I have attended several sound baths in the past. The masseuse struck the bowl again, placing it gently on the soles of my feet to allow the reverberation to echo through my body. It is the vibration of these sound waves that possess the purported healing effects, you see.

At the end of the 60-minute massage, we were treated again to a melodious symphony, this time with a rainmaker and wind chimes. These delightful noises were a welcome distraction from the faint, low thumping beats radiating through the walls from the nearby dance studio. No matter how much you try to create a refuge within your own walls, you can’t control your neighbors…

After we were clothed and left the room, our masseuses greeted us and led us on a short “tour” through the hallways, showing us the various certifications and licenses the spa holds. They also proudly display their staff’s names and smiling faces, almost like a family portrait. We passed by the bathroom, decked out in black and gold again, and sporting a rain shower. Then we were back in the MUJI waiting room, with a pleasant spread of snacks and refreshments. We stayed for a full hour, just chatting and going back and forth to the snack buffet. I am not even ashamed to say I had multiple servings of the rice cereal boat, which was a yummy fusion of Western and Asian tastes.

YuSpa currently offers a DianPing promotion for first-timers to the spa, so the one-star 60-minute massage experience will cost RMB 288 instead of the usual RMB 636. The higher level two-star massage of the same length (which I detailed in this article) is only a little more at RMB 358, which is totally worth the price tag.

YuSpa Chaowai SOHO Address: Chaoyang District Hujialou Street Chaowai SOHO Block A B1 Floor B107-108
中国北京市朝阳区国贸朝阳门外大街乙6号A座B107

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Images: Pexels, Vivienne Tseng-Rush 

Scarlet Salmons is the go-to stylist for those Beijing ex-pats wanting to edge up their look, emerge from parenting or grueling work into the land of the modern, and shed some accumulated dust from their do. Scarlet is a long-term British expat in Beijing with magic in her scissors.

After years of working in partnership with other salons, she opened her own salon called London Loft in the summer of this year, located just across from the April Gourmet on Xingfucun Zhonglu in Sanlitun.

The salon is cozy and hip with great shelves made of painted pipes, excellent contemporary art and a Plexiglas railing that holds the empty color tubes from years of the previous salon’s customers. It was such an excellent idea to house them in the railing—colorful and eye-catching—that I snapped these pictures but left forgetting to ask her if she would be collecting the used tubes from her new customers and adding them in too. I hope so!

The last time I visited Scarlet was in the springtime when she cut off my mousy shoulder-length hair (most often tied up in a ponytail) into a stylish short crop. I loved it so much I vowed to never try growing out my hair again. It had been too long between cuts, however, and so this week’s “trim” became epic. The last time I had it this short was in the late nineties and apparently this look is back in style again. Behold the requisite selfie. I am happily shorn!

Ember Swift is a Canadian musician and writer living in Beijing since late 2008. She is married to a Chinese musician and they have two children, Echo nearly 4 and Paz nearly 2. To know more about her, please visit: www.emberswift.com

Photos: Ember Swift