During 1880, Hiei visited ports in India, Persia, the Persian Gulf and various ports in Southeast Asia. The ship made annual port visits to Jinsen in Korea in 1881 through 1883. She was assigned to the Small Standing Fleet in 1886 and became a training ship in 1887 the following year. Together with her sister ship , Hiei sailed from Shinagawa, Tokyo on 13 August 1889 on a training cruise to the Mediterranean with cadets from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, returning on 2 February 1890. On 5 October the sisters departed Shinagawa for Kobe to pick up the 69 survivors of the wrecked and continued on to Istanbul, Turkey to return them to their homeland. They arrived on 2 January 1891, and the ships' officers were received by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The ships also carried a class of naval cadets. On the return voyage, they made a port visit at Piraeus where they were visited by King George I of Greece and his son, Crown Prince Constantine. Making stops at Alexandria, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore and Hong Kong, the sisters arrived at Shinagawa on 10 May.Lengerer, Pt. III, p. 47Hiei began another cadet cruise on 30 September 1891 and visited Australia and Manila before returning to Shinagawa on 10 April 1892. The ship was not in service in 1893, but she was recommissioned before the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894.Lengerer, Pt. III, p. 48 Hiei was assigned to the Standing Fleet on 2 July.Lacroix & Wells, p. 655 She was the last ship in the Japanese line during the Battle of the Yalu River in September and was heavily damaged when her captain decided to pass through the Chinese fleet rather than try to keep up with the faster Main Squadron.Evans & Peattie, p. 44 The ship became the target of most of the Chinese ships and was forced to disengage to prevent further damage.Wright, pp. 90–92 Hiei was transferred to the West-Sea Fleet on 14 October, and the sisters were assigned to the Second Raiding Unit in December for operations against the Chinese port of Weihaiwei. The ships were present during the Battle of Weihaiwei in January–February 1895, although neither saw any significant combat.Wright, pp. 100–104 Hiei took part in the invasion of Formosa in 1895, and participated in the bombardment of the Chinese coastal forts at Takow (Kaohsiung) on 13 October 1895.Davidson, p. 358
