Taobao offers several payment options. Here, we introduce two of the most often used methods: online banking and Alipay.

How to use Taobao without Alipay or a Chinese ID

Besides the language challenge, the main reason that holds back expats from shopping on Taobao is the fact that setting up an Alipay account requires a Chinese ID and a passport number is not an alternative.

Here we show you how to shop on Taobao without Alipay or a Chinese ID number. To do so, you only need to activate one of your debit cards for online banking.

Go to your bank in person, tell them that you want to activate the online banking service (开通网上银行), and the bank staff will do the rest. It's pretty much all about signing papers.

On Taobao, when you submit your order, you'll be offered a variety of ways to make your payment.

Scroll down to the button of the page to look for the online banking option (网上银行). You will only see this option after you activate your online banking service. Click on the blue characters 选择其他, which means selecting another option.