Al-Assad's plane landed in China at around 05:10 GMT, as broadcast by a Chinese news agency.
While in Hangzhou, the Syrian leader is expected to attend the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games, the media reported earlier in the day.
In addition to the summit with Xi, al-Assad, who is accompanied on the trip by his wife Asma, will also hold a series of meetings in Shanghai and Beijing, the Syrian presidency stated.
The Syrian delegation headed by al-Assad also includes Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Al-Miqdad, Economic Minister Humam Al-Jazaeri and Presidential Minister Mansour Fadlallah Azzam, as well as the head of the country's diplomatic institute, Ghassan Nseir.
This is al-Assad's second trip to China and the first since the Syrian conflict began in 2011. The first time the Syrian president visited China was in 2004, after the United States introduced a package of sanctions against Damascus in May of the same year.