Northeast China Plain in the context of "Inner Manchuria"

Northeast China (Chinese: 东北; pinyin: Dōngběi) is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over 350,000 km (140,000 sq mi). The region is separated from the Russian Far East to the north and east by the Amur, Argun and Ussuri Rivers; from North Korea to the south by the Yalu and Tumen Rivers; and from the neighboring North China to the west by the Greater Khingan Range and Yan Mountains. It is also bounded by the Bohai Bay and Yellow Sea to the southwest, about 100 km (62 mi) away from East China's Jiaodong Peninsula across the Bohai Strait, due to be connected via a proposed undersea tunnel.

The four prefectures of Inner Mongolia (which is part of North China) east of the Greater Khingan, i.e. Chifeng, Tongliao, Hinggan and Hulunbuir, are sometimes also considered broader parts of Northeast China, and together with the aforementioned three provinces formed what was historically known as Inner Manchuria, in contrast to the Outer Manchuria (or "Outer Northeast" in Chinese literatures) annexed by the Russian Empire during the mid-19th century.

Northeast Asia, sometimes called Northeastern Asia or Northeast Eurasia, is a geographical subregion of Asia. Its northeastern landmass and islands are bounded by the North Pacific Ocean.

The term Northeast Asia was popularized during the 1930s by American historian and political scientist Robert Kerner. Under Kerner's definition, "Northeast Asia" includes the Japanese archipelago, the Korean peninsula, the Mongolian Plateau, the Northeast China Plain, and the mountainous regions of the Russian Far East, stretching from the Lena River in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east.

The Harbin cranium is a nearly complete skull of an archaic human found in sediments of the Songhua River near Harbin on the Northeast China Plain, dating to at minimum 146,000 years ago during the Middle Pleistocene. It was described in 2021, and that year it was assigned as the holotype of the new human species Homo longi ("dragon man") named after Long Jiang, where the fossil skull was discovered . The Harbin cranium was initially hypothesized to belong to the same species as the Denisovans, and subsequent proteomics and mitochondrial DNA analyses confirmed its Denisovan affinities.

The Harbin cranium is broadly anatomically similar to other Middle Pleistocene Chinese specimens. Like other archaic humans, the skull is low and long, with massively developed brow ridges, wide eye sockets, and a large mouth. The skull is the longest ever found from any human species. Like modern humans and the much earlier Homo antecessor, the face is rather flat, but with a larger nose. The brain volume was 1,420 cc, within the range of modern humans and Neanderthals.

The Liaohe Plain is a paddy plain located in the southern tip of Northeast China, part of the greater Northeast China Plain. The Liaohe Plain is one of the most important industrial zones in Liaoning, and with a cultivated land area of 144 million hectares, the area of the paddy-growing fields of its rice field station has increased by 977.1 sq km, from 1988 to 2006.