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.
Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous County, which belongs to Pu'er City, Yunnan Province, is located in the southwest of Yunnan Province, west of the central part of Pu'er City, bordered by Ninger County in the east, and connected with Simao District and Ninger County on the south by Weiyuan River and Xiaohei River. the Lancang River is opposite to Lancang County and Lincang District and Shuangjiang County in the west, and Yuan County is adjacent to Beihe Town. County people's Government is located in Weiyuan Town, 130 kilometers away from Pu'er City and 466 kilometers away from Kunming City. By the end of 2016, the county covers an area of 7777 square kilometers, with 6 towns and 4 townships, with a total population of 311400. Jinggu belongs to the boundless mountain branch in the southern section of the longitudinal valley of the Hengduan Mountain system, which is alternately distributed among mountains, plateaus and basins, with the highest elevation of 2920 meters and the lowest elevation of 813 meters. It belongs to the subtropical monsoon climate with an annual precipitation of 1354 millimeters.