Decades ago, before the mall was built, two famous crowded food streets once stood here: Hock Lam Street and Chin Nam Street. I heard that the Hock Lam Beef Noodles originated there was particularly popular. In the late 1970s, the hawkers were told to relocate because of impending urban redevelopment works in the area. The two streets were expunged and Funan Centre was opened on the site in 1985 – Funan being the pinyin-ised Mandarin pronunciation of the Hokkien Hock Lam (福南). As for the famous Hock Lam Beef, multiple outlets were opened throughout the island over the years, but unfortunately the last outlet of the 108-year establishment closed down just July this year.
Although Funan Centre started as a general shopping centre for the masses, the mall began to attract a critical mass of electronic and IT retailers over the years, becoming a more dignified alternative to Sim Lim Square. Its main and long-time anchor tenant is Challenger, a major homegrown IT that began life in Funan Centre with just one store. The mall was also renamed twice. It became known as Funan The IT Mall in 1997, and had its name changed again in 2005 as Funan DigitaLife Mall.
Due to the popularity of online shopping, business at the mall had been declining over the years. In July 2016, the mall was closed and demolished for redevelopment into an experimental creative hub.
After three years of renovation, the shopping mall was officially reopened on 28 June 2019 as simply "Funan". Funan contain features such as an indoor cycling track, free showers, an urban farm and food garden, wireless phone charging stations, a VR lounge, indoor climbing walls in the middle of the mall, and the "Tree of Life", a tree-like structure spanning multiple storeys housing retail pods.
Funan's opening hours are from 10am to 10pm.
GPS can be wonky here, so use the spoiler and spoiler pic to find the cache. Be sure to re-hide it properly afterwards.