Greetings from Yimianpo, China, where artisans carve Russian nesting dolls

Greetings from Yimianpo, China, where artisans carve Russian nesting dolls

John Ruwitch

November 19, 2025 / 9:27 am

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 ,