It's several minutes before noon on a Thursday afternoon at Huawei's headquarters.

Located in Shenzhen, the emerging tech city in the Guandong providence of China, the campus covers a massive area filled with trees, mid-sized buildings and lakes. In what could easily be confused for a large university campus, the setting quickly goes from serene to bustling as throngs of employees pour out of buildings and make their walk to some of the dozen or so cafeterias.

It's a typical lunchtime at the information and communication technology conglomerate, which counts nearly 60,000 employees at its headquarters and 180,000 employees globally.

CNBC was recently granted rare access to tour the campus.

Huawei is currently the world's third-largest smartphone maker behind Apple and Samsung. For several months in 2017, Huawei's smartphone sales even surpassed Apple, positioning it temporarily only behind Samsung. The Chinese tech giant has also become the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world.

Here's what CNBC observed during the visit: