Short-term high temperature degradation test was conducted on Hastelloy X, a candidate tube material for high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR), to evaluate the variation of microstructure and mechanical property in air at during 2000 h. The dominant oxide layer was Cr-oxide and a very shallow Cr-depleted region was observed below the oxide layer. At the beginning of degradation, the island shape precipitate (M=Mo-rich, Fe, Ni, Cr) was observed in matrix region. After 2000 h degradation, precipitate shape was changed to the chain shape and increased amount of precipitate. These results influenced mechanical property of the specimen which exposed in high temperature. Yield strength was decreased from 115MPa to 89 MPa after 24 h and 2000 h exposure, respectively.