The other side of the Milky Way is basically the same as the neighborhood here near the Sun: there are stars, gas and dust, making up spiral arms within the galactic disk. It’s hard for us to see through all the dust and confusion of the center of the Milky Way, but we have some knowledge of things there on the Sun’s orbit, or what we call the Solar circle. For example, some of the links here discuss the recent discovery of a previously unknown (but suspected) spiral arm on the other side of the Galaxy.