A TikTok video recently sparked controversy after a foreign couple attempted to hitchhike from Seoul to Busan and failed. Many K-netizens criticized that the couple hitchhiking was unreasonable considering Korea's top transportation infrastructure and lack of hitchhiking culture.

In the short Tik Tok clips, the couple can be seen standing at a rest area in Seoul's Meeting Square, holding a piece of paper with "Busan" written on it, but vehicles just passed them by. The couple later commented, "I experienced the worst hitchhiking in Korea," and expressed their surprise at how difficult it was to hitchhike in Korea without considering the advanced transportation in Korea.

The couple tried hitchhiking for five hours before giving up and taking three buses to reach Busan. They complained that they "took 3 buses, which took 7 hours to get from Seoul to Busan," and their disappointment continued as they explored the city and found it to be less scenic than they had expected. In a subsequent video, the couple complained about the lack of beauty in the cherry blossom scenery and the prevalence of concrete buildings in downtown Busan. They called the city of Busan "grey and boring."

It was revealed that the couple was from Slovenia and traveling worldwide. The couple visited Korea around mid-March.

The videos posted by the couple quickly went viral on various social media platforms, including TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit. In response, many netizens criticized the couple for not conducting adequate research before visiting Korea and for attempting to hitchhike in areas with sufficient transportation infrastructure.

Netizens commented, "Korea has good public transportation and the price to travel is cheap. They brought on the difficulty on themselves so why are they complaining?" "Of course, you would be able to hitchhike in areas where there is no transportation like deep in the countryside but they are trying to hitchhike from Seoul to Busan. How can anyone trust them and give them a free ride from Seoul to Busan?" "These Foreign beggars..." "They can conveniently take the bus or KTX (train) straight from Seoul to Busan really quickly. And it only costs 50,000 KRW (38 USD). They should at least spend that much," and "If they're on a tour, they should go to places with cherry blossoms. They didn't even do proper research."

Korean netizens also commented, "Hitchhiking culture is not well known in Korea. They didn't even do proper research before coming," "They wouldn't do this in their own country why are they trying this here?" "People are wary of crimes committed by strangers. So, of course, people won't give a ride to a complete stranger," "I mean, it's not like the transportation infrastructure is bad in Korea. They don't even need to pay a lot to get from Seoul to Busan really quickly," "They are basically complaining they didn't get a free ride," "They don't know the culture of the country and they are just complaining," and "They are so inconsiderate."