China already has an easy system for paying utility bills at convenience stores. But if you are like me, you too-often forget to take those bills out with you when you leave the house. So here is an even easier way to pay — via Taobao. You will need to have your bill in-hand.

• Shanghai: Water, Electricity, Gas
• Hangzhou: Water
• Beijing: Water, Electricity

• Hangzhou: Electricity, Gas
• Tianjin: Water, Electricity, Gas
• Chongqing: Water, Electricity, Gas

First click in to the utility bill-paying center in Alipay. You will see this menu:

As you can see, it defaults to Water. But you can also pay your electricity bill or your gas bill. Click on the little blue drop-down menu and it will give you the other options in that order: Water, Electricity, Gas.

The next menus are Province and City, and currently there are only two options, so this shouldn’t be a problem either. 

The long drop-down menu is your specific utility company name. You will need to match this with what’s on your bill. Shanghai, for example, has six water companies with similar names. Take a moment to compare.

Once you’ve chosen your company, a little image will pop up telling you where to find your billing number. Type in the billing number, and then type in the amount due and proceed.

Now it will ask you how you want to pay. If you are a devout follower of the Field Guide, you probably already have money on your account. So you will click the button circled here.

Next you will login to Alipay, and then you will see the normal payment procedures. Just enter your payment password and you are done!

Oh my god that was so boring. Time to look for something fun.

Your mobile phone is running low on money, but you don’t need to run down to the corner recharge-card seller. You can recharge your account directly from Taobao and you won’t even have to enter in any long PIN numbers.

If you are traveling in China and your mobile phone runs out of money, you are out of luck. Recharge cards are region-locked, so the one you buy in Xi’an won’t work for your Shanghai mobile number. But recharging online always works, wherever you are.

This one is super easy. Just go to the Taobao homepage. Click on Recharge Mobile (手机充值）

1. Choose your Mobile Phone carrier.
China Mobile = 移动
China Unicom = 联通

2. Choose your location
This is where you bought your mobile phone number.

3. Choose how much money you want to recharge.
Start with a modest amount until you get the hang of it. 

The next screen gives you a few options. You may notice that you get a slight discount by recharging online! But this discount is nothing significant, and I suggest that you choose the top one, which is automatically recharge (自动充值)

The other two options are to recharge within 10 minutes, and to send the recharge number online so you can recharge yourself. Spending the extra Y0.70 has always seemed worth it to me to avoid these hassles.

The next step is where you enter in your mobile phone number.

The next screen should be familiar – just enter your password to confirm payment with your password.  And that’s it! A person will receive your request and help you recharge your mobile.  Within a minute or two, your account balance should be updated. China Mobile users can confirm their balance by sending an SMS to 10086 with message text: ‘YECX’. You will receive an SMS response telling you how much you have left.