Go to the bank to fill in the application and tell the officer of the bank that you want set up a online bank account and then use your account and register your account from taobao website and finally, you can buy anything and pay it online whenever u want...... 
OR you can pay COD at your door. Check the goods as they arrive and then give the cash to the man on the bike if the goods are as describet. 
You also can read the taobao field guide; http://taobaofieldguide.com/getting-started-on-taobao/buy-taobao-rechage-card-at-post-office 
OR you can wait here for a retarted answer from the brain dead once, which will come soon........

TY bennyfulltrack

You should go to bank ,you can have the debit card over there . But sometimes you don't use the debit card ,just Paypal,Credit Card, Western Union, TT, Money Gram ,it is OK. Like smalltao , it is convenience .

I have an alipay account. It's much safer. I top up my account by adding the money into it as you would recharging your mobile phone account. It's quite easy. There are machines at family mart. It's much safer than Internet banking

very easy, register on taobao first, then bring your passport and go to a bank like china construction bank, tell them you want a zhifubao long ka  for taobao,   you need to fill up a form , write down your tao bao account name, email, phone number etc, then the bank will give you the card, blue color (china construction bank),  its like other bank card you can use it for shopping in malls, you can put money in or take out money from any ATM.   

I had this dilemma recently. The easiest way to pay is by having an alipay (zhifubao) account but foreigers can't open one because you need a chinese id number when registering. I eventually figured out that you can also pay using normal online payment. To do this, you just have to make sure that your online banking has been activated (you must go to the bank and fill out a form - ring your passport!) and then they will do it for you. Bank of China give you a little device with a code on it that you have to use whenever you log in to your online bank account. Anyway, basically when you find something you like and proceed to pay, simply choose 网上银行, sign in using the username and password set up at the bank and press confirm - it's as simple as that.

Here is a NEW 2014 Guide on How to Set Up an Alipay Account with your Debit Card as a Foreinger in China and it works!

http://kiteplans.info/2014/10/09/how-to-alipay-account-sign-up-for-foreigners-in-china-2014/

I finally succeeded in setting up a zhifubao (alipay) account, only to find that i still can't add my China construction bank card.  
They told me i should use ICBC for whatever reason.  We will see very soon, i will go to china construction bank as bonita says and ask for this zhifubao long ka and see how it goes.. or ...just open that stupid ICBC account.

But yes the intention is to use this for taobao
jd.com is so much easier

Pay directly on taobao is some difficult, must have taobao account,  not chinese, hard to get taobao account,because need local bank card.

Suggest to buy taobao stuff through Taobao Agent, Agreetao http://www.agreetao.com is good site to help you buy and ship . Reliable site I have asked them to buy many times before.

you can not add your card. You need to use ONLINE BANKING only.

after you've been sent from alipay to a page with list of banks you'd see credit card, debet card.... go lower and there would be a blue link (cross) "online banking" . click on it and you'll see another list of banks. choose yours and you'd be transferred  to your internet banking account. log in and enjoy!