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.
Qiaojia County is located in the northeast of Yunnan Province and the southwest of Zhaotong City, with geographical coordinates of 26 °32 °N, 27 °25 °N and 102 °52 °E, 103 °26'E. Qiaojia County borders Huize County of Qujing City in the east, Dongchuan District of Kunming City in the south, Liangshan Prefecture East, Ningnan, Butuo and Jinyang in Sichuan Province in the west, and Zhaoyang District and Ludian County in Zhaotong City across the Niulan River in the north. It is located in the heart of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. The county covers an area of 3245 square kilometers, with a width of about 57 kilometers from east to west and 98 kilometers from north to south. Qiaojia County people's Government is stationed in Baihetan Town, which is 268 kilometers away from the provincial capital Kunming, 151 kilometers from Zhaotong and 169 kilometers from Xichang, Sichuan.