U.S. developers of senior housing are looking to enter the Chinese market as that country’s population ages, MarketWatch reported.

Chinese developers “are seeking America’s experience and expertise to help them achieve world-class standards,” said Nie Meisheng, president of the China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce, a Beijing-based trade group that organized a recent trip to the United States for about 30 Chinese business representatives.

Life Care Services LLC, a Des Moines company that manages 104 U.S. retirement communities, said its CRSA subsidiary is consulting with a Chinese firm that has senior living developments under way in Nansha and Beijing.

“We’re looking at the China market and saying, ‘That’s where the United States was in the 1960s,’” said Ed Kenny, president and CEE of Life Care Services.

But U.S. developers have yet to break ground on their own projects in China, analysts and investors said, as an uncertain regulatory framework, as well as a centuries-old family tradition that elderly parents in China live with their children, gives developers pause.

And though social attitudes are changing as new wealth provides more Chinese families with a greater number of options, it isn’t clear how many would be willing to receive or able to afford U.S.-style care.

China is home to 167 million people over the age of 60, and nearly half of older adults live alone. By 2016, the number of Chinese senior citizens is expected to increase by about 8 million.