• Mesa
  • Qitai

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.

Qitai County is located in the northeast of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, at the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain, at the southeast edge of Junggar Basin, 195 kilometers west of Urumqi City, is the border county of Changji Prefecture, Xinjiang, and has a first-class national port-Wulatai Port, which is open to Mongolia. Qitai County, with a total area of 19300 square kilometers, has jurisdiction over 7 towns and 8 townships, with Qitai central regiment farm and Beitashan pasture. The total population of the county is 240500 (2013), with ethnic minorities accounting for 25% of the total population. There is the only Tatar township in China. Qitai County has more than 20 kinds of mineral resources, such as coal, granite, iron, gold, silver, copper, mirabilite, graphite, limestone, bentonite, perlite and so on. In 2012, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Qitai County was 8.524 billion yuan, an increase of 1% over the same period in 2011.
Travel Sights In Qitai
Travel Notes In Qitai