• Mesa
  • YangQuan

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.

Yangquan City, a prefecture-level city under the jurisdiction of Shanxi Province, was called "Yangquan" in ancient times. Located in the central and eastern part of Shanxi Province, adjacent to Xinzhou City in the north, Taihang Mountain and Shijiazhuang City in the east, Taiyuan City in the west and Jinzhong City in the south; with a total area of 4559 square kilometers, it is a new industrial city. Yangquan is located in the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau, belongs to the eastern mountains of Shanxi, the landforms in the territory are mainly mountains, the rest are hills and plains; it belongs to the warm temperate semi-humid continental monsoon climate zone. As of 2018, Yangquan City has jurisdiction over three districts and two counties, with a total population of 1.4144 million. Yangquan is the gateway of Sanjin, Shanxi and Hebei, located in the middle of the two provincial capitals of Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang, with a distance of 100 kilometers. Yangquan is also located in the combination zone of the eastern developed region and the central and western regions, as well as the two major scriptures around the Bohai Sea and the Yangtze River Delta.
Travel Notes In YangQuan