In development · now taking custom projects

PlacelorePlacelore

A local culture experience builder · Using AI to keep local wisdom alive

Translate a place, fall in love with it.

Let’s talk → Try Bangka Herbal Fortune ↗

01Issue

After AI,
how does culture survive?

The easier AI makes everything, the harder it is for places to be seen. Travelers reach the old districts and see the scenery, but not the culture.

AI makes content endless

Important but unflashy culture gets pushed aside by algorithms and sinks to the bottom of the information flood.

Globalization + modernization

Cities and towns look more and more alike — the qualities that make a place worth the trip are disappearing.

4.84%

Key Number

Nearly 30% of Japanese visitors go to Longshan Temple,
yet only 4.84% name it their favorite spot

29.63%have visited Longshan Temple

4.84%named it their favorite

11.11%favorite rate in 2019

The crowds come, but they aren’t moved. What travelers lack isn’t sights — it’s a key to understanding the culture: something that helps them read it, step into it, and want to come back.

Source: Tourism Administration, Ministry of Transportation and Communications (Taiwan),2024 Survey of Visitor Expenditure and Trends in TaiwanTable 5-3-11, Japanese respondents, 2023 data; 2019 figures from the 2019 edition. Favorite rate = respondents naming it their favorite ÷ respondents who visited.

02Solution

We use AI to do the opposite

Culture→experiences you can walk into

Making AI a good tool for preserving the local

Placelore is a cultural-travel system made for local use: it gathers scattered local knowledge and translates it into experiences, turning it into games and field guides travelers can carry with them.

Eight herbal field-guide cards laid out on a wooden table

Living Archive

AI helps compile and cross-check historical sources; once corrected, they become cultural field guides residents can co-create and maintain.

A traveler checking today’s lucky herb on a phone

Local Experience

Tailored interactions help international visitors grasp local life easily, step into the culture and want to explore.

A traveler on a bicycle looking at a neighborhood guide on a phone

Revitalization

Live guides × neighborhood curation: wherever you’re curious, go play. Depth, within walking distance.

Easy-to-carry interactive games, cultural field guides and multilingual content —
blending culture and wellness to create one-of-a-kind journeys

Interactive games, cultural field guides & multilingual content — blending culture and wellness into one-of-a-kind journeys.

03Framework

AI organizes. People verify.

At the core of Placelore is a “local knowledge base”: AI does the heavy organizing and cross-checking; people verify and approve. Verified knowledge is then translated into multiple languages and interactive formats.

01
Organize
AI gathers scattered historical sources.
02
Verify Human approval
Experts proofread; only accurate entries go in.
03
Translate
Into multilingual, interactive content.
04
Guide
Leading travelers into real streets.
05
Open Always updating
Residents add and correct — back to verification.

See the full framework

INPUT · Sources

Historical documents
Official databases
Academic databases
Resident feedback

AI01 Organize

Compile scattered sources and flag gaps and contradictions between them.

Human approval02 Verify

Experts check entry by entry; only accurate ones are approved.

KNOWLEDGE BASE

Local knowledge base

PeopleArtisans · shops · residents’ stories
CultureBeliefs · customs · festivals · history
地Terrain · climate · ecology
ProduceCrops · goods · crafts · food
SceneryStreets · architecture · sights

Organized by the community-building categories of people, culture, land, produce and scenery — each place fills in its own content.

OUTPUT

03 TranslateMultilingual content · interactive games · field-guide cards

04 GuideSpot recommendations · walking routes

Always updating05 OpenResidents add and correct via a simple form → back to 02 Verify before entering the knowledge base

Human judgment

Verification and openness are the two points where human judgment stays in the loop — so AI serves the real world instead of replacing life with noise.

The gate and lanterns of Bangka Qingshan Temple

Cut-porcelain decoration on a temple roof ridge

Rooted in Wanhua

Starting from the lanes of Wanhua

Wandering the neighborhood and its old streets — shops, stalls, temples, markets. The way a place looks is where design begins.

04Case 01 · Wanhua, Taipei

Bangka Herbal Fortune
From an online fortune to the old streets of Wanhua!

Try it now ↗

Herbs× Folk faith× Alley exploring

Two children holding herb field-guide cards, crouching to compare them with real plants

Using “good luck” to tie together plants, faith and neighborhood life.

A century ago people drew herbal fortunes and filled them at herb shops — faith and plants were one. We translate that way of life for today’s travelers.

60common Taiwanese medicinal herbs in the field guide
100Leiyu Shi fortune poems from Qingshan Temple
100local spots recommended in Wanhua

* For now we research through custom projects, with Bangka Herbal Fortune as our demonstration case: build the work first, then derive the framework, so each region’s experience flows back into the Placelore system.

60 herbs, researched and verified one by onePreview

Balloon flower illustration — Balloon flower

Baikal skullcap illustration — Baikal skullcap

Blackberry lily illustration — Blackberry lily

Yellow bush lily illustration — Yellow bush lily

How it plays

One fortune, and you’re walking into Wanhua

STEP 01Press the vase
STEP 02Meet your herb
STEP 03Cast the blocks
STEP 04Read your fortune
STEP 05Go to your lucky spot

Herbal Wellness Easy herbal wellness know-how that opens up new ways for people and plants to connect

Researched sourcesEach herb’s names, aliases, history, lore and common uses — with sources cited and human-reviewed.
Everyday useFrom herbal tea and cooking to fragrance — traditional health wisdom turned into ideas for modern life.

* Content is cultural and literature research, not medical advice. If you feel unwell, please consult a doctor.

05Why Walking

A 15-minute walking circle —
fall for a place in one afternoon

Taiwan is small and mountainous. Beyond the scenic areas, most destinations charm through culture and everyday life — but these details are hard for non-native travelers to read quickly; even Chinese speakers need time living alongside locals to feel their simple beauty.

For whom

International travelers
and first-time visitors

More and more young people travel Taiwan independently. They don’t need an itinerary — they need a key to explore on their own.

How it works

Small places,
15 minutes on foot

Measured by walking distance: spend an afternoon or a day roaming the lanes, chatting with shopkeepers and forming real bonds.

For the place

Independent travelers,
profits stay local

Working with neighborhood inns and tourism offices to serve independent travelers directly, so places grow their own service models.

For the body

Walking and playing
is wellness in itself

Taiwan is a place that takes wellness seriously. Walking is good for you — and you collect healthy discoveries along the way!

A traveler holding up the Bangka Herbal Fortune field-guide booklet, with a lotus on the cover

Traditional · group toursPlacelore · independent walking

High commissions to OTAs and tour operatorsServing travelers directly through local inns and tourism offices
Rushed itineraries, seeing everything and nothingSlow, understood, felt
Spending concentrated in big storesSpending spread to small shops in the lanes — and return visits

06Roadmap

A new place, a new service

Starting in Wanhua: get one neighborhood right first, then turn the method into a replicable system.

STEP 01In progress
Digital first
Setting · a partner inn in Wanhua
Guests scan a QR code at the inn to draw today’s herbal fortune; we keep refining the content from their feedback.
STEP 02Next phase
Then physical
Setting · Herb Alley
Shops display herb cards and merchandise; travelers bring their fortune in to see the real thing, and curation brings shops real revenue.
STEP 03Planned for 2027
Then the streets
Setting · Wanhua neighborhood
15-minute walking routes link temples, Herb Alley and old shops; arrive to unlock field-guide entries, count steps and share.
STEP 04Long-term goal
Replicate locally
Setting · Taiwan → the world
The same system, run by local teams and co-edited by communities — from Wanhua to all of Taiwan, then abroad.

07Business Model

Four revenue streams

An herb shop counter displaying Bangka Herbal Fortune field-guide cards with matching dried herbs

B2GCommissioned cultural experiencesLocal governments and institutions commission experiences tailored to their area.
LocalLocal IP partnershipsThe experience drives traffic to districts, temples and shops, linking and promoting them together.
GoodsPhysical productsTurning the IP into creative merchandise, marketed through crowdfunding and sold through design retail.
LicenseSystem licensingLicensing plus consulting lets local teams run the system while quality stays high.

Health Wellness industry partnerships | Future focusBuilding on verified herbal research, we co-create products and experiences with health, tea, wellbeing and wellness-travel brands.

**Herbal tea collaborations**Inspired by the 60-herb field guide, seasonal drinks with tea brands — every cup is a field-guide card.

**Wellness and self-care goods**The scents and stories of herbs, made into fragrance, tea bags and everyday self-care goods.

**Walking wellness challenges**Step counting plus check-in unlocks: walking missions with health brands — the more you walk, the more herbs you unlock.

**Wellness travel itineraries**A half-day “herb stroll” with partner inns: Herb Alley tour, herbal tea tasting and a walking route in one.

08Team & Invest

Join us

Founder | Head of Chat Chat Cat Studio

Wayin Ko

Single-handedly built Placelore’s product strategy, cultural translation, visual design and system framework, taking Bangka Herbal Fortune from zero to launch.

Background: Former Creative Director and Brand Director at Simpleinfo; MFA, Graduate Institute of Applied Arts, Fu Jen Catholic University
Experience: 10 years in issue-driven design; 300+ information design projects reaching over 100 million people; 6 years of design for regional revitalization

See full profile

Selected work: Lead planner of the interactive games “Heritage Burner”, “Run, Taipei!” and “Presidential Office Adventure”; the immersive Qingyun Pavilion heritage experience in Wanhua was selected for TAICCA’s 5th Creative Accelerator
Awards: Projects recognized by Red Dot, iF, Good Design and Golden Pin
Expertise: Brand strategy · design methods · digital marketing · online-offline integration · project management

Invest

Help Placelore grow from a project
into a system

We’re looking for investors and strategic partners to turn what we learned in Wanhua into a tool every place can use.

Book an investor call →

This round funds

01System developmentTurning the demonstration case into a licensable system
02Building the core teamHiring one engineer, one business developer and one planner
03A second demonstration regionProving the method works across regions

Let's work together

Together,
let’s translate the next city.

We’re looking for —

01A second partner region
02Local governments and tourism offices
03Districts, temples and local shops
04Wellness industry partners
05Investors and strategic partners

Send us a message ↓

CultureCommunityHealing

Keeping every place one of a kind.
Preserving local culture and creating experience economies in the age of AI.

PlacelorePlacelore