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.
Taiping District, Fuxin City, Liaoning Province, is located in the southeast of Fuxin City. It borders Haizhou District in the west and Xihe District, Fuxin County and Xinqiu District in the east. As of 2013, the Taiping area covers an area of 94.7 square kilometers with a total population of 180000. It has jurisdiction over 5 streets and 1 town, with a total of 55 communities and 11 villages. In 2013, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Taiping District totaled 4.25952 billion yuan, industrial enterprises above the scale of industrial output value 7.80394 billion yuan, industrial enterprises above main business income 7.700209 billion yuan, industrial enterprises above total profit 127.465 million yuan, industrial enterprises above tax scale 281.025 million yuan, and total retail sales of consumer goods.