Not more than 20 years ago, Suan Pan, which is known as the abacus to Westerners, was still a necessary tool for shopkeepers and street vendors in China. The abacus was a great invention of ancient China and was called by many westerns as "the earliest calculating machine in the world."

Suan Pan, which literally means calculating plate, consists of a rectangular frame carrying that holds a series of vertical rods strung with movable counters. A horizontal beam separates the frame into two sections, known as the upper deck and the lower deck. The vertical rods carry two beads on the upper deck, each which representsing 5five, and five beads on the lower deck, whicheach representsing one. The first vertical rod's beads represent one; and as one moves left on the abacus, the beads start to count for more. For example, the next vertical rod's beads to the immediate left will count as 10, then the next will count as a 100, and so on.

Moving the lower deck beads up and upper deck beads down carries out the computation. When all five beads in the lower deck are moved up, they are pushed back down; and one bead in the top deck takes their place. Similarly, if two beads in the top deck are pushed down, they are pushed back up, and one bead in the lower deck of the next rod to the left is moved up. The result then can be read off through the position of the beads. The standard abacus can be used to perform addition, subtraction, division and multiplication; the abacus can also be used to extract square roots and cubic roots.

The abacus was widely used in the past, not only among business people. Most of the families also relied upon abacus in managing accounts, as well as other activities concerned with calculation. It was quite interesting to watch elderly people working on an abacus, with their fingers dancing and beads crackling.  For those who are proficient in this art, the abacus not only generates accurate results, but also can be faster than using an electronic calculator.

Proper finger technique is important in achieving proficiency on the abacus. Usually the thumb, index and middle fingers are used to manipulate the beads. It takes time and great practiceefforts to master the finger technique. In the past that , two basic skills were required for those who'd like wanted to learn business, one is calligraphy and the , and the other, abacus.

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