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.
Shiping County, which belongs to Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, is located in the south of Yunnan Province and the northwest of Honghe Prefecture. As of 2014, Shiping County has jurisdiction over seven towns and two townships, with a total area of 3037 square kilometers, of which 94.6 per cent are mountain areas and traditional agricultural counties. In 2008, the population of Shiping County was 300300, and the population of ethnic minorities was more than 50%. In 2010, the GDP of Shiping County was 2.676 billion yuan. The main tourist attractions in Shiping County are Shiping Xiushan and Yilong Lake. Shiping County is known as "famous state of literature", "hometown of oranges", "hometown of red bayberry", "land of fish and rice", "hometown of tofu", "hometown of song and dance". In 2015, Shiping County became the only city in Yunnan to be selected as the first batch of "Chinese historical and cultural districts". On September 29, 2018, Shiping County, through the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee,