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.
Linxi County is a county under the jurisdiction of Xingtai City, Hebei Province, which is located in the southeast of Hebei Province and in the east of Xingtai City. Beijing-Kowloon Railway, Xinglin Expressway and Xinglin Highway run through the county, which is the east gate of Xingtai City and the bridgehead of Jilu. The administrative area covers an area of 542square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 6 towns, 3 townships, 6 communities and 299 administrative villages, with a resident population of 352900 (2016). The county people's government is stationed in Zhujiang Road, Linxi Town. The Han Dynasty bought Qingyuan County (now facing the west). The Northern Wei Dynasty changed its name to Linqing County. After the Jin and Yuan dynasties, the county government moved to Shuidong (now Linqing), which became the Hexi part of Linqing County. In 1964, five districts to the west of Wei Canal in Linqing County were established as Linxi County. Celebrities such as Wang Yanchao in the Northern Song Dynasty, Xie Zhen, a writer in the Ming Dynasty, and Lu Yulan, a national labor model, have emerged in the history of Linxi County.