In early March, she was again in Hong Kong, and was joined there by the flagship of the East Asia Squadron, the armored cruiser on the 8th. In August, the badly damaged Russian battleship and three destroyers sought refuge in the German naval base at Tsingtao following the Russian defeat in the Battle of the Yellow Sea. As Germany was neutral, the East Asia Squadron interned "Tsesarevich" and the destroyers. On 13 August, the Russian ships restocked their coal supplies from three British steamers, but "Hansa" and "Fürst Bismarck" cleared for action to prevent them from leaving the port. The two cruisers were joined by "Hertha", , and the gunboats "Luchs" and . "KAdm" Heinrich von Moltke arrived to replace Holtzendorff as the deputy commander on 16 December, though "Hansa" was no longer a flagship, as the position of 2nd Admiral had already been abolished on 27 July. The ship saw little activity of note in 1905. In April 1906, "KzS" Friedrich Marwede relieved Weber. On 20 May 1906, she assisted the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer , which had run aground off Kōzu-shima in the Philippine Sea. After pulling her free, "Hansa" towed the vessel to Nagasaki. On 4 July, she received orders to return to Germany; she arrived in Danzig by 26 October, where she was decommissioned at the Imperial Shipyard) there.