By Lori Chen, Trevor Hanekat, and Hyujin Kim

BEIJING/SEOL, May 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and his entourage, which includes Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and billionaire Elon Musk, received a warm welcome in Beijing on Wednesday as he prepares to urge his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to "open up" to U.S. businesses at the start of their two-day summit.

Trump is seeking to secure some economic gains in the first visit by a US president to China in nearly a decade, and to maintain a fragile trade truce to boost his popularity, which has been negatively affected by the war with Iran.

Prominent Chinese figures were there to greet the US president, along with a meticulously organized formation of military honor guards and dozens of Chinese students who waved American and Chinese flags as he stepped off the US presidential plane today.

Trump's entourage consists mainly of CEOs of companies seeking to resolve their trade issues with China, such as Nvidia, which has struggled to obtain regulatory licenses to sell its powerful H220 artificial intelligence chips there.

An informed source, who asked not to be named, said that Trump asked Huang at the last minute to join the trip, and he was seen boarding the US presidential plane during a refueling stop in Alaska en route to Beijing.

“I will be asking President Xi, a leader of extraordinary stature, to ‘open up’ China so that these wonderful people can show their magic,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform, referring to the delegation of CEOs.

He added, "This will be my first order."

In response to a question about Trump's post, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing was fully prepared "to expand cooperation, manage differences, and achieve greater stability and confidence in a turbulent world."

The talks are scheduled to cover a range of sensitive issues, including the Iran war and US arms sales to Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China, as well as trade issues.

Trump is widely expected to encourage China to persuade Iran to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict, although he has said he does not think he will need Beijing’s help in doing so.