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.
Shihezi, a county-level city directly under the jurisdiction of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, implements a division-city management system with the eighth Division of the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps, which is managed by the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps. Located in the middle part of the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain, in the south of Junggar Basin, covering an area of 460 square kilometers, 150 kilometers east of Urumqi, the capital of the autonomous region, Shihezi University, one of the two 211 universities in Xinjiang. Shihezi was once the headquarters of the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps, and then moved to Urumqi. Shihezi is a new city of military reclamation, which relies on farms, is dominated by industry, the combination of industry and agriculture, the combination of urban and rural areas, and the integration of agriculture, industry and commerce. Shihezi is famous for its reputation as "Gobi Pearl". In June 2017, Shihezi was named as a national health city. In the same year, Shihezi City confirmed that it would continue to retain the honorary title of national civilized city.