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.
Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County (Xinping County for short) is a county under the jurisdiction of Yuxi City. Xinping County is adjacent to Eshan County to the east, Shiping County to the southeast, Yuanjiang County to the south, Mojiang County to the southwest, Zhenyuan County to the west and Shuangbai County to the north. It is 180 kilometers away from Kunming and 90 kilometers away from Yuxi. By the end of 2017, Xinping County had jurisdiction over 2 streets, 4 towns and 6 townships, covering an area of 4223 square kilometers; the resident population was 292000, with a registered population of 278329, and there were 17 ethnic groups, including Yi, Dai, Hani, Lahu, Hui, Bai and Miao. Xinping County has won the honorary titles such as the National Garden County and the founding area of "China Natural oxygen Bar" in 2018. 2019 Top 100 counties and cities in western China. The seventh batch of national unity and progress