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.
Taijiang County is a county under the jurisdiction of Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou Province. It is located in the southeast of Guizhou Province and in the middle of Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture. The county seat is 48 kilometers away from Kaili, the state capital, and 218 kilometers away from the provincial capital, Guiyang. There are Highway 65 and National Highway 320 passing through the county. Taijiang County has a total area of 1107.33 square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 2 streets, 4 towns, 3 townships, 5 neighborhood committees and 197 village committees. At the end of 2014, the total population was 167200, including 15500 non-agricultural people and 157000 ethnic minorities. In November 2017, Taijiang County was awarded the "Top Ten quality Leisure counties and cities in China in 2017".