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Taiwanese social media post revealing restroom codes for Hongdae stores draws controversy

Published: 25 Sep. 2025, 17:17

A Taiwanese netizen shares restroom passwords for shops in Seoul’s Hongdae area on social media. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A social media post in Taiwan listing restroom locations and entry codes for shops in western Seoul’s Hongdae area has gone viral, stirring controversy amid online users.

A netizen uploaded a post compiling the locations and passwords for men’s and women’s restrooms in major stores around Hongdae, according to Taiwanese broadcaster TVBS on Monday.

The post read, “When you have trouble finding a restroom in Hongdae, you can use these passwords to access them for free,” adding that it was “too difficult to organize passwords for Gangnam, Busan and Jeju because there are too many.”

The post has since drawn more than 15,000 likes, reflecting Hongdae’s popularity among Taiwanese travelers.

But it also sparked debate among local netizens. Some praised it as “practical travel information,” while others criticized it as “disregarding store policies,” since most of the shops in Hongdae only allow restroom usage for paying customers.

Some commenters went further, calling the unauthorized sharing of restroom passwords a form of “data leakage.”

TVBS quoted a travel expert as saying that using passwords for restrooms is common not only in Taiwan but also in countries like the United States and across Europe, where it serves hygiene and crowd-control purposes.

“In Asia, public restrooms are relatively easy to find in places, like in subway stations and department stores,” the expert added. “But when using a restroom at a shop, it is considered polite to buy something or order food first.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]