Question: Is Hong Kong Part of China?
Answer: Yes. Hong Kong returned to China on July 1, 1997. This return is called the "Handover" as the colonial city-state was handed back to China from the United Kingdom on this date.
China conceded Hong Kong to the United Kingdom in 1841 after their loss to the UK in the First Opium War. A hundred-year lease on part of the colony expired in 1997 and the UK negotiated the handover to the PRC.
Today, China treats Hong Kong (and Macau) with special rights. These two territories are called Special Administrative Regions or SARs. Other Chinese geo-political territories are called provinces and autonomous regions.
For more about the history of Hong Kong see the following articles by the Hong Kong Travel Guide:
