Business and city leaders on Thursday hosted a delegation of two dozen Chinese developers and investors who are touring several U.S. cities to learn about investing in U.S. commercial real estate.

The group, which is looking at industrial, office and retail properties, was welcomed Thursday morning by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, and later met with real estate consultant Charles Heimsath and officials of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce to learn more about the region.

The delegation was led by Nie Meisheng, who is president of the China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce.

The group arrived in California on Sept. 10 and has visited San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas, and is headed to Houston and New York after Austin.

The two-day stop in Central Texas was coordinated by Austin engineer and real estate investor Chi-Kao Hsu, a native of Taiwan who moved to Central Texas in the late 1970s.

Last week, the English-language China Daily newspaper reported that Nie was leading a delegation of major Chinese developers on a fact-finding trip (of the U.S.) to assess multibillion-dollar investment opportunities in real estate.

A plunge in property markets worldwide following the credit market crisis has created opportunities for cash-rich buyers. Commercial property values in the U.S. have fallen 35 percent since October 2007.

China is a country of saving, and that makes this a good time to be looking at real estate, Nie said Thursday.

She said the investors are looking for undervalued real estate properties that they can purchase, manage and hopefully sell at a much higher price. They are also looking to partner with U.S. companies either to manage properties or for other investment.

The group had dinner Wednesday at the Lake Travis home of Helen Jobes, principal at commercial real estate firm Gold Eagle Investments.

They said they had heard of Texas barbecue but had never had it, so we brought in Rudy's, and it was a big hit, Jobes said.

It's my understanding that they are very serious about doing investments here, she said. They were very impressed by the quality of life, where we rank in U.S. job growth and the overall state of our economy.

On Wednesday, the group boarded a bus for a tour of various properties, including industrial parks, retail projects in Round Rock and the Chase Tower downtown, which is for sale.

The group members wanted to tour Texas to help put their California and New York visits in perspective, Nie said.

My first impression is that Texas has been hit by the downturn the least, and Austin appears to be faring better than other parts of Texas, she said. Values and occupancy might be down, but it will be a strong market in the long term, and that is very appealing to investors.