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.
Suileng County is located in the middle of Heilongjiang Province and in the northeast of Suihua City at the western foot of Xiaoxing'an Mountains. Suileng black pottery, a local specialty, is well-known in the country and is known as "the hometown of Chinese black pottery". Suileng County is bordered by Yichun City to the east, Qingan County to the southeast, North Forest region to the south and southwest, Bei'an City and Hailun City to the west and northwest, and Bei'an City and Xunke County to the northeast and north. The county has a total area of 4238 square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 6 towns, 5 townships and 76 administrative villages with a population of 320000 (2011). Suileng Town, where the county government is based, is the political, economic and cultural center and transportation hub of the county, 195 kilometers away from the provincial capital Harbin, and Binbei Railway and National Highway 102 pass through the west of the county. There are Han, Korea, Manchu, Hui, Mongolia, Miao, Zhuang,