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.
Suizhong County is located in the southwest of Liaoning Province, belonging to Huludao City, located at the western end of Liaoxi Corridor, Xingcheng to the east, Shanhaiguan to the west, Bohai Sea to the south, Yanshan to the north, and Xingcheng to the east. it is adjacent to the seaport area, Shanhaiguan District and Azure Dragon Manchu Autonomous County of Qinhuangdao City in Hebei Province in the west and Jianchang County in the north. It is located in longitude 119 °34'E to 120 °31'E and latitude 39 °59'N to 40 °37'. The county people's government is stationed in Suizhong Town, about 350 kilometers away from the capital Beijing and Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province. Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, was from Suizhong. The county has a total area of 2780 square kilometers and a total population of 640000. It has jurisdiction over 11 townships and 14 towns, including 16 ethnic groups such as Han, Manchu, Hui and Mongolia. The county's GDP reached 14.78 billion.