Is Hong Kong a country or part of China?

hmmm, i see twelve98, seems to be in Hong kong, hence the answer that HK is a separate country,HK people don't particularly seem to like to be referred to as Chinese, or mainland Chinese. HK would like to be its own country but china would never allow it to leave as it has to much value.
yes it does have it s own currency, government and was part of Britain until 1997, but it is still China.

Hong Kong is/was never a country. Hong Kong was originally a city of China, then it became a British colony, and now it's back to a city of China.

Hong Kong is not a country. It is part of China. The full name of Hong Kong is Hong Kong Special Administration Region. Hong Kong used to be a colony of Britain, but after 1997, she's been returned to China. Since Hong Kong has been under the rule of a western country for over one hundred year,she has her own currency (the Hong Kong Dollars) and life style different from China's. In order to make the residents easier to cope with the transition, China turned HK to a special region so the people can still live like they used to be. So, many people think that she is a different country. This is call 'one country, two system'.

It was apparently debatable, considering my high school teacher from 5 years ago said that yes, Hong Kong is its own country and therefore somebody had to do a country presentation on it, but agree with most other people who have answered. It's definitely a part of China. It can be considered a region, but it's just really a giant city.

In short, Hong Kong is a big city and is part of China.

the entire name of HK is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is a part of china.
LOL
the answer of twelve98 is wrong, Canada is Canada,Britain is Britain,Nobody believes Canada is a part of Britain. HK has no own army, no own foreign affair ministry, It is just a province of china.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region[6], is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south. It has a population of 7 million people, but with only 1,108km2 of land, making it one of the most densely populated areas in the world.[

Except foreign affairs and military, Hong Kong is a foreign country.

Hong Kong is part of China, most definitely not a separate country.

What might confuse is that to travel there from China you must go through border security, stamping your passport twice (on the Mainland China and Hong Kong sides). Hong Kong has its own currency. They even drive on the other side of the road from mainland China.

Hong Kong was a British territory until July 1997. It had it's own currency and laws based on British law.

In 1997 It was handed back to China whereupon it became a Special Administrative Region. It retained it's own currency and legal system but is very much part of China.

The current population is around 7 million