The Seoul-Busan highway is crowded with heavy traffic in both directions on Feb. 16, 2018, the Lunar New Year Day, as people travel to and from their hometowns for the holiday. (Yonhap)
The sun rises over Seoul at 7:50 a.m. on Jan. 28, 2017, the first day of the Lunar New Year. (Yonhap)
This aerial photo, taken on Jan. 26, 2017, shows heavy traffic clogging one side of a highway linking Seoul to the southwestern port city of Mokpo in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on Jan. 26, 2017, as the annual exodus for the Lunar New Year holiday begins. Known as “Seol,” the Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan. 27-30 this year, is one of the two major traditional Korean holidays. The state-run Korea Transport Institute forecasts that as many as 31.15 million people will travel to their home towns or tourist sites nationwide during the Jan. 26-30 period. (Yonhap)
Two elderly men erect a post on which rice, barley, sorghum and other grains are attached at the folk village in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, on Feb. 22, 2016, which is “Jeongwol Daeboreum,” the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. The rite is typical of customs observed by Korean farmers on Jeongwol Daeboreum to wish for a bumper crop in the new year. (Yonhap)
If it seems like that there is many more Chinese visiting South Korea it is because there are:
South Korea was ranked the most popular overseas destination for Chinese people during their weeklong national holiday that started this week, a Chinese government survey showed Wednesday.
About 5.19 million Chinese are expected to travel abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday season, up 10 percent from the same period last year, and 15.6 percent of them are predicted to visit South Korea, according to the survey by China’s National Tourism Administration.
Also in the top five were Thailand (13.9 percent), Japan (8.7 percent), Australia (4.4 percent) and Singapore (3.6 percent).
“This year, the number of tourists continues to grow, due to an easier visa application process for Chinese passport holders, and the depreciation of foreign currency against the yuan,” it said.
Fueled by a growing popularity of Korean pop music and TV dramas and a gradual appreciation of the Chinese currency, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea soared 46 percent from a year ago to 6.33 million people in 2014, according to South Korean government data. [Yonhap]
