Chuseok empties Seoul, crowds regional routes — in pictures

Photos capture a quiet capital as holiday travelers fill trains, highways and hometowns across Korea.

LIM JEONG-WON
LIM JEONG-WON LIFESTYLE & ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
Published Modified
A quiet Seoul boulevard with sparse traffic, city buildings, buses, and marked lanes.
A road in central Seoul is seen almost empty of vehicles and people on Sept. 25, the day of Chuseok.

Seoul and regional areas showed a stark contrast in crowds on the holiday of Chuseok, with the normally packed capital largely drained of populations as people heading to parental homes in provinces across the country left for the holidays.

Central Seoul’s Seoul Station and surrounding bus stops, usually full to the brim with office workers on their way to work, were seen almost completely empty on Friday, the day of Chuseok itself. While the palaces and tourist spots such as Hongdae were still full, commuters were nowhere to be seen in the capital.

A road in central Seoul is seen almost empty of vehicles and people on Sept. 25, the day of Chuseok.

In comparison, inside the train stations, on the highway roads and in small towns across Korea, traveling families and vehicles were seen in the hundreds. Tickets were all but sold out for trains traveling to regional provinces and the estimated driving time from Seoul to Busan was set at over nine hours.

Holiday travelers are seen waiting at a station in Pohang, North Gyeongsang, on Sept. 24.
Worker viewing a wall of highway traffic monitors in a Korean traffic control center
A Korea Expressway Corporation official is seen at the command center of the corporation's situation room in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on Sept. 25.
Vistiors and tourists are seen at an observatory in Paju, Gyeonggi, on Sept. 25.
Visitors crowd an outdoor park in Inje, Gangwon, on Sept. 24, the day before Chuseok.
People bow beside a table of traditional Chuseok food offerings at Imjingak.
Families of displaced South Koreans bow toward North Korea beside a memorial offering table at Mangbaedan memorial altar in Imjingak, Paju, on Chuseok.



Bus lanes around Seoul Station in central Seoul are seen almost empty of vehicles and people on Sept. 25, the day of Chuseok.



The boarding gates of Seoul Station are seen packed with travelers on Sept. 24.
A street in central Seoul is seen almost empty of vehicles and pedestrians on Sept. 25, the day of Chuseok.


BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]

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