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Li Xianying, left, a 101-year-old Chinese woman, sits in a chair as she poses for a photograph with the wax figure of Britain's Queen Elizabeth during a photo opportunity to celebrate the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival, at Madame Tussauds Museum in Wuhan, Hubei province Oct. 11, 2013. The Chinese honor their elderly during the festival on the ninth day of the 9th month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which falls on Oct. 13 this year. Reuters

U.S. and Chinese companies are joining forces to build senior-housing facilities in China and accommodate that country’s aging population.

The joint ventures are typically between global property firms based in the U.S. and local Chinese developers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

L’Amore-Kaijian, a 110-bed facility in Beijing’s Yizhuang district, is one such joint venture between Beijing’s Sino Ocean Land and Seattle’s Columbia Pacific Real.

"China’s population is aging very quickly, so there is going to be a huge market and lots of opportunities for investors and operators,” Serena Xie, who runs a facility in Shanghai, told the Wall Street Journal.

China had 121 million people aged 65 years old and above last year, about 9.1 percent of the population. In 2020, that number is forecast to reach 171 million, or 12.4 percent of the population, according to data from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Monitor Deloitte Analysis. There were 42.4 million seniors in the U.S. in 2012, and 30.1 million in Japan.

China’s politicians have made developing services for the elderly a top priority. The State Council has waived business taxes on maintenance at facilities for the elderly, and lowered taxes some have not.

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