Rising tide of international investment

Little affected by slack global demand, international investors have been paying increasing attention to Qingdao in recent years.

In 2012, the East China city attracted 14 Fortune 500 companies and utilized total investment of $4.6 billion, an increase of some 27 percent over the year previous.

The import and export volume reached $73.2 billion, up 4.5 percent over last year.