A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. The caprock can consist of either sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone; dissected lava flows; or a deeply eroded duricrust. Unlike plateau, whose usage does not imply horizontal layers of bedrock, e.g. Tibetan Plateau, the term mesa applies exclusively to the landforms built of flat-lying strata. Instead, flat-topped plateaus are specifically known as tablelands.
Fumin County is one of the counties under the jurisdiction of Kunming City, Yunnan Province. The county is located in central Yunnan, located in the northwest of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, 23 kilometers away from Kunming. Since ancient times, it has been known as "the key to northern Yunnan". The county covers an area of 993square kilometers, with a total population of 149000 (2012). Fumin County is rich in rice, corn, wheat, flue-cured tobacco, Zizania caduciflora, Chinese chestnut, medicinal materials, bayberry, grapes, winter peaches, cherries and other grain crops. Excellent ecological environment, has been listed as provincial and municipal pig, poultry eggs, chestnut, high-quality rice production base and "vegetable basket" project base. Fumin County is high in the south and low in the north, with alternate basins and mountains, large elevation difference, high mountains and few flat dams. The climate is a typical low-latitude subtropical plateau monsoon climate with an annual average temperature of 15.8 ℃.