Abstract: A systematic study of foreign standards, is the first step and key problem for the enterprise to go abroad to overseas market, and to enhance the international competitiveness. On the other hand, the revision and perfection of current domestic codes must draw lessons and absorb the advanced experiences from international standards. The basic principle of the European geotechnical engineering design code[1] including the action, effect, resistance and limit state calculation inequality, taking value characteristic of partial factors and application situation for three design approaches are introduced. Taking “The code for design of building foundation”[2] for example, the comparative analysis is made to find the similarities and differences in design approaches of the Chinese and European geotechnical design codes and the problems in domestic standards. Finally, a shallow foundation design example is given to illustrate the computing errors among three kinds of design approaches of European standard and those of domestic design codes. On this basis, the suggestions for improvement of domestic design codes are put forward.

Key words: Chinese and European standards, geotechnical engineering, design approach, comparing analysis