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Traffic builds up on highways as people return to Seoul from Lunar New Year holiday

January 23, 2023

Traffic on major highways started to build up nationwide Monday morning, as millions of South Koreans started to return to Seoul on the third day of the four-day Lunar New Year holiday.

This year’s holiday, one of the country’s largest, started Saturday, with the annual exodus of people from Seoul and its surrounding areas to their hometowns for Lunar New Year, which fell on Sunday.

With the extended holiday ending Tuesday, those same people began making their way back to the nation’s capital Monday.

According to the state-run Korea Expressway Corp., traffic toward Seoul was expected to peak around 4-5 p.m. Monday, and it will likely ease around 2-3 a.m. Tuesday.

A drive from the southeastern port city of Busan to Seoul, 325 kilometers in distance, was expected to take about seven hours and 10 minutes as of 12 p.m. From Gangneung, 168 km east of the capital, the drive was expected to take four hours.

The Korea Expressway Corp. estimated 5.13 million vehicles would hit the road Monday.

Vehicles clog the southbound lanes on the Gyeongbu Expressway in Seoul, as millions of South Koreans begin their annual exodus out of the capital city toward their hometowns during the extended Lunar New Year holiday, on Jan. 22, 2023. (Yonhap)
Vehicles clog the southbound lanes on the Gyeongbu Expressway in Seoul, as millions of South Koreans begin their annual exodus out of the capital city toward their hometowns during the extended Lunar New Year holiday, on Jan. 22, 2023. (Yonhap)