Henan Province (hé nán shěng 河南省) lies entirely north of the 31st parallel north (north of the equator) and entirely west of the 116th meridian east (i.e. 116 degrees longitude east of the universal mean-time point, Greenwich, in the UK). To get a fix on where Henan Province is located relative to the internal geography of China, one can compare the location of the province within China to the location of a corresponding state within the 48 contiguous US states: if a map of the 48 contiguous US states were made to fit over China, then Henan Province would lie roughly where the US state of Iowa lies, or just northeast of an imaginary crosshair that divides China into quadrants along north-south and east-west lines, precisely where the same crosshair over the US would place the state of Iowa.