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.
Ninglang Yi Autonomous County is one of the jurisdiction of Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, commonly known as Xiaoliangshan, located in the northwest of Yunnan Province, the county people are stationed in Daxing Town, 628 kilometers away from Kunming, the provincial capital, and 129 kilometers away from the Lijiang Municipal Government. As of 2014, the total area of the area is 6025 square kilometers. The Baiyanzi main peak, the highest point in Ninglang Yi Autonomous County, is 4513.3 meters above sea level, and the lowest point is 1350 meters above sea level at the mouth of Lianzibuhe of the Jinsha River. At the end of 2011, Ningyi County had a total population of 264200, of which the Yi nationality was the main population, reaching 166400, accounting for 63.0%. In 2013, the gross domestic product of Ninglang Yi Autonomous County was 2.67 billion yuan, and the proportion of primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry in the national economy was 23.5, 41.5, 35. Ninglang Yi