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Q: How do I order things on Taobao?
A lot of my Chinese friends say they buy things at the website taobao.com but I don't know how to set up an account. Do you need a special card? Can you pay cash on delivery???
Yup, you can pay cash on delivery. No need for a special card.
My suggestion would be to find a Chinese friend who can help you set up your account and navigate the website.
hi,,,,easy,,make a account... and then order things..no special card...buy things with your web bank card...thats ok...
The first step in getting an Alipay account is acquiring a bank account. This really requires a minimum of fuss as it only takes about 15 minutes to open an account at a bank after braving the queues. All that is needed is a passport and maybe a little help in interpreting the form, plus a small amount of money for starting up the account. China Construction Bank even has its own Alipay debit card which means that users don’t need to even go to the (minimal) trouble of registering online with Alipay.
Once you have your bank account, armed with your passport number, mobile phone number, email address and a little patience you can go to the Alipay registration page https://www.alipay.com/user/user_register.htm.
A helpful guide for navigating this registration process can be found at:
http://taobaofieldguide.com/advanced-tactics/registering-for-an-alipay-account
coffaholic:
I just tried setting up an alipay account and the website doesn't allow you to use a foreign passport number! You have to have a Chinese ID. Are you Chinese or is there a way to get around it? Im afraid you make it sound too easy.
Is it really true that you dont have to set up some kind of payment card to start ordering stuff? im skeptical. Everything's so bloody complicated here especially if you're a foreigner. So angry right now. Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!
I set mine up, on my own, in my first few months in China...... forget how, but it's gotta be pretty simple if I can do it. My only problem, has been my delivery address, it has changed 3 times and I can't write Chinese and addresses do not translate well. postal code and phone number has become very important for me.
bank account and card and a phone and one of them little security things...... my code on "that little security thing" changes every minute somehow.
Google chrome
Sign up to Taobao like you would to Ebay, i have put the pinyin address in mine, should be easy enough to get. My browser i use is google with google translate- its a add on so translate the whole of Taobao for you. Choose something and go through the checkout (has to be on IE) and what i do for payment is i have a usb security device for payment so at end type in a code, get a txt a code and then gets withdrawn from my bank.
Pay with your credit card. If that fails then all is lost!
