Is it the Hubei Province or Hubei Province? This is entirely for discussion purpose. The issue is whether a definite article "the" should be used in the above situation. I think "yes". According to the language website www.learnenglish.de the answer is also "yes". Although the explanation given by the website refers to countries (please see below), I think the same applies to provinces or states, You do not use an article before the names of countries except where they indicate multiple areas or contain the words (state(s), kingdom, republic, union). Kingdom, state (province), republic and union are nouns, so they need an article. For example: No article - Italy, Mexico, Bolivia, England Use the - the UK (United Kingdom), the USA (United States of America), the Irish Republic Multiple areas! the Netherlands, the Philippines, the British Isles The link is http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/articlestext.htm