Lunar New Year"s Vacation Underway

Confronting the four-day vacation that marks the ancient Lunar New Year's Day which falls on February 16, it seems that 27 million Koreans have already launched their homecoming trip on February 13. Highways, bus terminals, airports, and train stations are overflowing with gift-laden, happy travelers.
On Saturday, 93,000 people departed for hometowns across the nation from Seoul Station, a 10,000 increase over last year's. Between February 13 and 15th, all tickets starting from Seoul have been sold out, even standing-room-only seats.
Seoul Station added 31 temporary trains with an additional seven trains departing Chongyangri over the holidays.
The highways already resemble parking lots, as gridlock conditions prevailed this afternoon.
As of 1 p.m., 47,000 cars exited through Seoul's sole toll gate, which is expected to be 30,000 vehicles more than in 1998 by the end of the day.
At Kimpo International Airport, 36,000 people have boarded airplanes so far today, 20 percent more than last year. Southeast Asian airlines, especially, were totally sold out for the holidays.