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.
Suiyang County belongs to Zunyi City, Guizhou Province. Located in the north of Guizhou Province, in the middle of the Dalou Mountains, Suiyang County is more than 75 kilometers from north to south and 56 kilometers from east to west, with a total area of more than 2566 square kilometers, accounting for 1.45 percent of the total area of Guizhou Province and 8.28 percent of Zunyi City. Meitan Lake in the east, Huichuan District in the south, Tongzi in the west and Zhengan in the north. As of August 2014, Suiyang County has jurisdiction over 12 towns, 3 townships, 108 administrative villages, 11 communities, 1 provincial economic development zone, 1 municipal industrial park and 1 county industrial park, with a total population of 550000 (2013). In 2013, the gross domestic product of Suiyang County was 5.95 billion yuan, the total retail sales of consumer goods was 1.45 billion yuan, the per capita disposable income of urban residents was 18446 yuan, and the per capita net income of farmers was 18446 yuan.