I don't think you can say "empty apart from the province labelled Poland hard up aganst the Russian border". What's empty is Inner Mongolia ("North Korea"). The rest of the Northeast, former Manchuria, contains a number of large cities: Harbin in "Poland", Changchun in "Afghanistan", Shenyang and Dalian in "Argentina".
There are now two rail border crossings to the Transsib from Manchuria, but AFAIK the bulk of the trade with Russia still goes through Mongolia, that in the Northeast is more local. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Upon checking, I'm less sure -- maybe it's still just one. I thought the first of the two cross-border rail projects there (Dongning-Ussuriysk, Hulin-Lesozavodsk) was due by now, but I couldn'tr find any evidence of even construction start on-line. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Forgot to add: big enough that they are to be connected with full high-speed lines, and Shenyang to Beijing (which is partly already in service). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
