From 3 p.m. Thursday, traffic came to a virtual standstill at Hanoi’s western gateway.

At Mai Linh Bridge in Ha Dong District, vehicles backed up for more than a kilometer in either direction.

The seven-day Tet holidays begin Friday. The Lunar New Year (of the Cat) is on Sunday.

At 4 p.m. traffic came almost to a standstill for more than 800 meters on Giai Phong Street that leads to the Phap Van-Cau Gie expressway, a vital southern entrance to Hanoi.

But congestion is common on the expressway during rush hour and weekends.

With temperatures at around 18 degrees Celsius, people wore warm clothes as they carried peach blossoms and kumquat trees, indispensable decorations during Tet in the north.

Vietnamese have a long tradition of offering fresh flowers to gods and ancestors to pray for good fortune and peace.

At around 4:30 p.m. the southern gateway on the Phap Van - Cau Gie expressway was congested for 2 km.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Truong Son Street leading to Tan Son Nhat Airport was also severely congested on Thursday afternoon.

Some 131,000 passengers went through the airport on Thursday, the largest number so far before the Lunar New Year.

Passengers at a security check-in area inside the domestic terminal at Tan Son Nhat.

Some 72,000 people flew abroad and 69,000 travelled domestically. The domestic terminal has a designed capacity of 41,000 people a day.

A section on Highway 1 that links the Mekong Delta with HCMC on Thursday afternoon.

After finishing work at her company in Binh Tan District, Mai Huong and her family drove to her hometown in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang to celebrate Tet.

“Some roads are clearer than in previous years, so I feel less tired,” she said.

In the past it used to take hours to escape the gridlock at the point between HCMC and Long An, she said.

The An Phu intersection in Thu Duc City was not crowded like the city’s other exits.

On normal days it is often congested since the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay highway begins here.