Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.
Matryoshka dolls are a Russian folk art tradition dating back over a century. These hollow wooden figurines, shaped like squat bowling pins and painted ornately, come in sets that nest neatly one inside another.
On a recent visit to northeastern China, I learned that many nesting dolls are made in one small township here — Yimianpo. It's about 125 miles from the border with Russia.
In the late 19th century, when the Russian Empire started building rail lines to expand eastward, Yimianpo was a key stop. The matryoshka — or tao wa, as they're called in China — followed.
A workshop owner invited me into his carving shop. There, amid thigh-high piles of wood shavings, I watched an artisan hammer a block of linden wood from a nearby forest onto a lathe. Wielding gouges and chisels that looked like diabolical fire pokers, he shaped the wood into a rounded silhouette. Then he carved another. And another.
See more photos from around the world:
- Greetings from the Arctic Circle, where an icebreaker ship drew polar bears' attention
- Greetings from Johannesburg, South Africa, where spring bursts with jacaranda blooms
- Greetings from high up in Colombia's Andes, where 'prairie-style meat' is a delicacy
- Greetings from an Indian Railways coach, with spectacular views from Mumbai to Goa
- Greetings from the Rhône Glacier, where a gash of pink highlights how it's melting
Copyright 2025 NPR
