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.
Huating City, which belongs to Pingliang City, Gansu Province, is located in the eastern part of Gansu Province. It is located at the confluence of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia provinces (regions). Huating Town was set up in the second year of the Northern Wei, Jin and Tai dynasties (532). It is named after the Huajian Pavilion at the foot of Huangfu Mountain. It has jurisdiction over 1 street, 7 towns, 3 townships, 101 administrative villages and 27 communities, with a total area of 1183 square kilometers and a permanent population of 197000 in 2017. Huating, known as the "porcelain capital of coal city", is the necessary place of the ancient Silk Road, the core area and industrial town of the integrated industrial development of coal, power, chemical and transportation in Gansu Province. it is one of the thirteen coal production bases and one of the three major coal production bases in Northwest China. it is also an important energy supply and freight distribution base in Longdong. Huating Quzi Opera is the first batch of intangible cultural heritage in China, Ankou Town in the Ming Dynasty.