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.
Jinsha County is under the jurisdiction of Bijie City, Guizhou Province. It is located in the northwest of Guizhou Province, east of Bijie City, adjacent to Zunyi to the east, Guiyang to the south, Bijie to the west, and Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone to the north. Located in the Central Guizhou Economic Zone, Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and Pan-Pearl River Delta Economic Circle, Hangzhou-Rui Expressway, Chiwang Expressway and Pan-Guizhou Express Railway straddle the county boundaries. Jinsha is one of the strong economic counties in Guizhou Province, one of the top 100 counties in western China and one of the demonstration counties with the most investment potential in China. Jinsha, formerly known as Drum Xinchang, bought the county in 1941, taking the first word of "Jinbaotun" and "Shaxiba" in the territory as its name, taking its meaning from the ancient saying of "picking gold from sand", which means careful selection, coarsening and refinement. The county has a total area of 2528 square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 26 townships (towns, streets) and 241 villages (communities). There are 15 ethnic groups, including Han, Miao and Yi. Forest coverage in Jinsha County