24-night China cruise: Osaka to Hong Kong, China on Azamara Pursuit
The Japan, Korea & China Combination Cruise: Tokyo, Seoul & Shanghai is a 24-night China cruise aboard Azamara Pursuit, operated by Azamara. Departing Osaka on September 15, 2028 and arriving in Hong Kong, China on October 9, 2028, the voyage visits 15 ports including Takamatsu, Kochi, Japan, Hiroshima. Fares start from $8,849 per person.
Fixed editorial images from the places on this itinerary. They stay stable each time you return to this sailing.
Osaka
The third largest city in Japan, Osaka was founded on the mouth of the Yamato and Yodo rivers, on the island of Honshu. On a MSC cruise you can discover this metropolis, once the trading capital of Japan.
Famous for its modernity and its nightlife, Osaka has a surprisingly rich historical and artistic heritage. With an excursion you may reach the ancient Castle. It was built from 1583 onwards on the former site of the Ishiyama Honganji temple, which had been commissioned by the samurai and daimyo, Hideyoshi, one of the great unifiers of Japan and destroyed thirteen years earlier by Oda Nobunaga. This imposing building, from the tower of which you can admire the splendid view of Osaka, is surrounded by a wonderful park of 6 hectares: an authentic poetic vision when the cherry blossoms bloom in Spring. Along the canal, near the Castle, you'll find the quarter of Dotonbori, an explosion of colourful signposts indicating night clubs, restaurants and izakayas, a sort of Japanese cafè.
Along the main road, the Ebisubashi bridge links the Shinsaibashi-suji and Ebisubashi-suji quarters, renowned for their shops.
If Dotonbori is the place to go for modernity, Shinsekai is the quarter that represents the old town of Osaka. Developed before the Second World War, it has been neglected over the years. In the centre of this urban area you may find the Tsutenkaku Tower. This landmark of Shinsekai bears some resemblance to the Parisian Eiffel Tower and was the focal point of the permanent fun fair set up around it.
On an excursion get a great view of the whole city from a height of 173 metres above sea level.
In fact, you can climb to the fortieth floor of the Umeda Sky Building, designed by the architect Hiroshi Hara. The skyscraper is made up of two identical towers, connected between them by several bridges and on the highest part, by the Floating Garden Observatory, the hanging gardens from which you may admire Osaka.
For those who enjoy shopping, you can walk along the Tenjinbashi Arcade. This indoor arcade extends for about two kilometres, from the underground station of Tenjimbashi-suji Rokuchome to the Tenjinbashi bridge: the shops sell all sorts, from shoes to books, from clothing to medicine.
Takamatsu
Takamatsu is located on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands, in the Kagawa Prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea. During the Edo period, it was famous for its seaside castle, one of the few with a moat utilizing seawater. The castle was destroyed during the Meiji period, and today the so-called Sunport waterfront project has substituted the Symbol Tower, Takamatsu’s tallest building, for the castle tower that once graced its flag. Long an important port for Japan, Takamatsu was nearly destroyed in 1945 by Allied incendiary bombing. A portion of the famous castle, including foundations and part of the wall, still strand on the city-center park, and there are plans to reconstruct more of it. The Ritsurin Koen garden, first built in the Edo period, survives, and makes a welcome oasis in the city, with a folk museum, rest houses and a tranquil tearoom among lakes, hills and groves of cherry trees that bloom in the spring and flame into color in the autumn. The Shikoku Mura is an open-air museum with traditional buildings gathered from all over Shikoku on display. The Yashima area boasts an Isamu Noguchi Museum dedicated to the late designer, artist and sculptor, with several traditional buildings he relocated and used as work spaces and galleries, along with many finished and unfinished sculptures. There is also a lovely Yashima Temple halfway up the mountain, and at the top, an observation deck with breathtaking views of the city and port.
Hiroshima
Hiroshima means “wide island” in Japanese. The city was established in the 16th Century on Japan’s largest island, Honshu, and grew into an important shipping center and prefecture capital, boasting a fine castle. Although it was an important city in Japan throughout the imperial period, its reputation in the greater world was burned into history when it became to target of the first atomic bombing of a civilian target in August of 1945. The United States airplane Enola Gay dropped a nuclear device nicknamed “Little Boy” on the city that morning, obliterating everything within a two-kilometer radius and directly killing 80,000 people. Approximately 70 percent of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed. Within a year, injury and radiation illness had killed an additional 90, 000 to 116,000 citizens. The attacks on Hiroshima and nearby Nagasaki quickly led to the surrender of Japan and effectively precipitated the end of World War II in Asia. Within a few years, Hiroshima had begun to rebuild, and the city became the focus of an international movement to eliminate nuclear weapons from future wars. Relics of its past such as the impressive Hiroshima Castle and the tranquil Shukkeien Garden were rebuilt, and the city undertook the construction of a Memorial Peace Park, which today attracts visitors from around the world. The park, which holds a museum and a memorial “Atomic Dome” constructed on the closest remaining building to the blast site, is a moving and impactful place of pilgrimage in this re-born City of Peace. One notable feature is a colorful memorial to Sadako Sasaki, a young woman whose dying wishes for world peace were recounted in the story A Thousand Paper Cranes.
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The launch of Azamara PursuitSM in 2018 opened the seas to maiden ports, new itineraries, and the opportunity to provide our guests with even more unforgettable, unique, and immersive experiences than ever before. Like our sister ships, Azamara Pursuit offers some of the most extraordinary adventures on Earth, to places you’ve always dreamed of. Or, perhaps, only just heard about.
New-to-Azamara destinations include Antofagasta (Chile), Lima (Peru), and the Beagle Channel—and those are just some of our South American maiden destinations. Not only do we now take you to 15 unique ports and a whole host of bucket-list locales, but we also stay longer in each one, so you have more time to experience the world’s many wonders in a truly AzAmazing way.
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