The first Asian Accelerator School (AAS) was organised to show the rapid development of accelerator sciences based on electron storage rings in Asia. At present seven electron-positron colliders are operational in the world, and two of them are located in Asia: KEKB (the KEK B-Factory) at KEK in Japan, and BEPC at IHEP in China. It is also notable that one-third of the operating synchrotron light sources are Asian machines.To further improve the performance of electron storage rings, the use of superconducting magnets and cavities is of vital importance; therefore the curriculum of AAS was arranged not only to teach the basic physics of storage rings but also to give students a basic knowledge of superconducting technology.