Rush to pagodas causes traffic during Tet

While almost all streets in Hanoi are empty on Tet, roads adjacent to large pagodas and temples in the capital remain extremely overloaded.

Local authorities try to regulate traffic 

It has been a long-running tradition for people to crowd into pagodas and temples on important days of the lunar month. Tet, being the most important, the traffic around these sites has increased.

So as to ensure order, local authorities have arranged forces to regulate the traffic. Still their efforts do not seem to have helped much.

Near the Tay Ho Palace, vehicles lined up for almost two kilometres, all the way down to Yen Phu. There were also traffic jams along Xuan Dieu and  other roads in the area.

Other streets, such as Thanh Nien, which is a route between Tran Quoc Pagoda and Quan Thanh Temple were clogged with illegally parked cars.

Even though parking lots around Quan Su Pagoda were better regulated, there were still traffic problems because of the pagoda's visitors.

Because so many people want to visit these pagodas and temples during the holiday, parking rates have skyrocketed.

Parking lots around Tay Ho Palace apply parking fees of VND20,000 (USD0.95) for a motorbike, and between VND60,000 and VND80,000 (USD2.85-USD3.8) for a car.

Fees are a bit cheaper at parking lots along Quan Su Street, with VND10,000 (USD0.47) per motorbike, and VND60,000 (USD2.85) per car. On a normal day a motorbike would be charged VND3,000-VND5,000 (USD0.14-USD0.23) and a car, from VND10,000-VND20,000 (USD0.47-USD0.95).

Routes to Tran Quoc Pagoda jammed for Tet