Set amid lush foliage, and only a short stroll from the Bund, the city's landmark, HASSELL China's headquarters building in Shanghai looks more like a tranquil resort than an office complex.

The relaxed atmosphere inside the spacious open office, well lit by natural light beaming through tall glass windows, belies the hectic pace of a flourishing design studio run by Australian designer Peter Duncan.

An old China hand, Duncan, managing director, Asia, of the Australian design firm, has been working in China for more than 20 years. Although he has built many connections in this "highly relational" society, he admits, his Chinese has remained "elementary".

His connections, nevertheless, have helped open doors, enabling him to land many government projects. "I don't see discrimination against the foreign in government tenders," he said.

That is a reassuring statement to many foreign suppliers and contractors who are keen on securing a share of the huge government procurement pie.

A recent study by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China estimates that China's public procurement totals $1 trillion, or 6.8 trillion yuan, a year - about 20 per cent of the total economy.

But the report adds to rising complaints from major trading partners that foreign companies are being treated unfairly in China's huge and rapidly growing public procurement market.

Efforts by foreign companies to secure Chinese government supply contracts are actively supported by their respective governments. For instance, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited China in 2010 and market access was number one on her list of discussion topics with the Chinese leadership.

Duncan and some other foreign business people who have been working closely with their Chinese partners and clients have a rather different perception. They say they suspect the perception of "unfairness" stems from a misunderstanding of the rules and the less obvious nuances of doing business in a different culture.

Duncan says that the experience of his company in China can help ease foreigners' concern about the complicated rules.

As one of the largest planning and design consultancies in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, HASSELL began undertaking projects related to the Chinese mainland from Hong Kong back in the early 1990s. The catalyst for expanding the business came in 2003 when it established a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise and launched the first working studio in Shanghai.

"We won our first government bid through an invited international design contest in 2003," Duncan recalled.

Involved in many commercial projects beforehand, HASSELL has gained experience and a reputation in architecture interior design and landscape design, and therefore was "recommended to take part in the competition", said Duncan, even if "we did not know specifically anyone from the government".

HASSELL, along with other tendering parties, was given three months to fulfill a draft design for the new town of Ningbo, a fast-growing city in East China's Zhejiang province.

"Like in all cases, the government always included both international firms and local institutes to take the bid. Still, all we do is focus on our design and not get distracted by anything else," Duncan said.

After winning the contest, HASSELL and a consulting company were appointed by the Ningbo Urban Planning Bureau to develop urban design principles to guide the expansion of the city to the east encompassing a new urban core and a surrounding 39-square-kilometer urban precinct.