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.
Gaogang District is under the jurisdiction of Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province. It is located in the southern half of Taizhou City, bordering the Yangtze River, Hailing District of Taizhou City in the north, Jiangyan District and Taixing City in the east, Jiangdu District of Yangzhou City in the west, and Yangzhong City in the south. The central coordinates of the city are 32 °1906 "north latitude and 119 °52" 33 "east longitude. Gaogang District has a total area of 286.83 square kilometers and a total population of 262905 (by the end of 2012). Gaogang District has jurisdiction over 4 townships, 3 subdistrict offices and 1 provincial high-tech industrial park. Gaogang District is the southern gate of downtown Taizhou and the birthplace of the Navy of the Chinese people's Liberation Army. In the Gaogang area, there are the Yangtze River Port Taizhou Port, the South-to-North Water diversion Project and the Taizhou Yangtze River Bridge. In October 2019, he was selected as the national science and technology in 2019.