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.
Tieling, a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Liaoning Province, is located in the north of Liaoning Province and in the middle of Songliao Plain. The city has a total area of 13000 square kilometers and has jurisdiction over 2 municipal districts, 2 county-level cities and 3 counties, with a total population of 2.916 million in 2018. Since 1984, Tieling has sent nearly 600 sports reserve talents to excellent sports teams above the provincial level, including Yan Hong, Lu Gang, Chen Yueling, Sun fuming and Liu Hongyu, who have become world champions. In 2018, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Tieling City reached 61.66 billion yuan, the per capita GDP reached 23428 yuan, the general public budget income reached 5.22 billion yuan, and the per capita disposable income of urban permanent residents reached 24994 yuan, an increase of 7.5 percent over the previous year.