The chances of a non-Chinese firm designing Chinese company websites is about 0.  You will simply be out-matched in communications, price and connections.

The are 2 main reasons why you see outdated sites here.  1) The company is too small to be able to afford a make-over, or 2) the site that they have works for them, so why change it?

Even if they do want to change it, they can find talent here that will do it for a fraction of the price.

Any idea's on site prices over there?

I got talking to a few business owners in Shenzhen who where really keen on breaking into the international ecommerce market, but because of the "Great Firewall of China" any site hosted in China loads far too slowly for foreign visitors.

I did notice it seems to be who you know rather than what you can do in China, luckily my better half has a lot of family and friends in China so I hoping this will make things easier.

Design is different.  I forgot where I read it, but Chinese don't mind busy websites.  They see a simple Western website and think that the lack of things exploding at you as a sign that the business is slow and unpopular.  They see a Chinese website with tons of text and things jumping at you and think this place is busy and therefore popular and therefore good.  I know Americans value sleek and ease of use, but Chinese don't, they value excitement and popularity.

I've seen it firsthand, where two stands were selling roasted nuts about 30 feet from each other.  One had a huge line, the other no people.  Chinese people (and I was with a Chinese friend at the time who told me exactly this) think that they must be popular because it's good, and therefore follow the crowd.

Site prices depend on the type of work done.  For a basic business card, static site you can get done for about 300RMB or less.

For a custom e-commerce website it can cost 20,000RMB+ depending on the complexity and amount of traffic designed for.  (i.e. server farm based or not, multi-location setup, etc...)

The big thing is the ecommerce laws in China and how the currency system works with the rest of the world.  It is very complex and troublesome.  Take a look at taobao.com for example.

And yes, it is far more about who you know then price (and sometimes quality) that matters.  Good luck.

Thank you for your advice, very interesting about the busy looking websites. If you happen to stumble across where you read please drop me the link, it will be hugly appreciated. 

Price wise business cards sites, those are cheap about the same as India pricing, e-commerce is probably where we need to target.

Anyone know which is the most popular search engine in china? Could do with trying to climb it.