BEIJING — President Obama is in China for less than three days this week, but he is seeing a great deal of President Xi Jinping.

On Tuesday, they will go for a quiet walk in Mr. Xi’s walled compound and have dinner. The next day, they will take part in a formal welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People and toast each other at a state banquet.

Mr. Obama will spend far less quality time with the broader Chinese population. There are no town-hall-style meetings, televised interviews or major speeches on his schedule.

Much of that was due to time constraints: squeezing an economic summit meeting and a state visit into three days, before the president leaves on Wednesday to travel to Myanmar and Australia, is no easy task. But the itinerary also reflects the White House’s decision to nurture the one-on-one relationship between Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi in favor of reaching out to the Chinese public.