Chuseok holiday exodus for hometowns begins

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SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- The annual exodus for the "Chuseok" holiday began
Thursday as South Koreans went to their hometowns to be reunited with family
members and visit family graves.
Chuseok, the Korean harvest holiday, is one of the largest holidays in South
Korea, and runs Friday through Sunday this year.
Cars jammed most of the country's highways, including the Gyeongbu Expressway
linking Seoul to the port city of Busan, as more workers joined the mass exodus
late Thursday.
As of 9:00 p.m. the Seoul-Busan, West Coast and Yeongdong expressways were jammed
tens of kilometers, with the average speed being 30km per hour in some areas,
according to the Korea Highway Corp.
The state-run company said as many as 3.1 million cars left the capital Seoul,
predicting 600,000 additional cars will hit the road by midnight.
An official at the company said, "The traffic jam is expected to continue through
Friday."
Domestic flights of the two major airlines -- Korean Air and Asiana Airlines --
marked load factors of 70-80 percent, compared with 60 percent on normal days.
The Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs forecast that 25.66
million people will join the exodus during the five-day period from Thursday
through Monday. South Korea has a population of 49 million.
The expected number of holiday travelers decreased 0.8 percent from a year ago as
some people stopped short of making trips due to the relatively shorter length of
holiday and the HINI influenza scare.
Health authorities have warned people with flu symptoms and those at higher risk
of complications to stay home as 11 have died from the contagious illness in the
country.
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