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The forbidden city takes almost one day to get around. There are several temples and palaces some of them with huge gardens around Beijing.
It is easy to find a tour to the Chinese wall. Most hotels can book you on a day trip. If you take a bus tour the stay at the wall will be limited to one or two hours. The wall has been restored and it is possible to walk on it many kilometres. It is quite steep as it goes up and down the hills. If you want to stay at the wall for a longer time it is possible to get there by train. But then you miss the visit at the old tomb on the way which often is included in the guided tours. The tours are not so expensive. The cheapest tours (for a few dollars) are sold at local ticket stand for example near Tian'anmen square nearby the Mausoleum. Then the guide might speak Chinese but if you have a guidebook this doesn't really matter. But it is important to check which time the bus leaves after each stop.
During our 3 week visit in Beijing we also bought railway tickets to Xian. There is a special counter for foreigners at the big railwaystation. The sleepers are OK and the restaurant car was nice (menus are on Chinese but prices were low just point on any meal).
There are several inexpensive hotels in Xian, some of them just opposite the train station. The ancient city with its drum and bell tower, small and big pagoda, temples are nice. Try the dumpling restaurant opposite the bell tower. It is simple, cheap, big meals with dumplings and you will talk to a lot Chinese people who will sit at the same big table as you. There are also guided tours to the terra-cotta army outside the city. But here it is advisable to take an English-speaking tour.
We went to China in July. It was warm about 25-30 degrees Celsius but OK for us. Best season is spring and autumn, but then there might be more tourist around. The winter can be cool with temperatures nearby 0 degrees Celsius. For people going on a low budget there are many hotels for about $5 but they wont tell you at the airport tourist booking office. But they are easy to find out if you ask other backpackers or when you arrive with the airport bus in the city. My impression is that people on the streets in north china are more reliable than in India for example. And it is common that Chinese people who can a little English approaches you and want to help if you study your map or seem to be in doubt where to go. Buses might be full during rush hours but somehow everybody gets on anyway. A backpack might be more difficult, ones we took a bus from the end stop to be share to get the backpacks on. Renting a bicycle is nice It costs about 50 cents per day.
Sometimes people can stand and star at you. For example I wanted to by short trousers in a shop on the main street in Xian. I tried them on and whilst I did this people on the street stopped, looking at me in the shop. When I was ready 5-8 people stand around me watching me trying the trousers. Afterwards I asked another Chinese man I met what people actually were looking at. He told me that Chinese people do not have hairs on their legs and arms and that the hairs on western people therefore fascinates them.
Also birds are very seldom in china. During a campaign several years ago they were Chassid so that they should not eat seeds which could be eaten by humans.
Some people with short of time have asked if 8 days in Beijing will do. Going 8 days to Beijing is a very nice idea. There is a lot to do in Beijing, and you will probably think that the 8 days are a very short time to do all you want. If you know what you want to see in Beijing a map of the city will be sufficient so that you know how to get around by bus, bicycle or metro. If you do not bring a map you can easily get one when you arrive. You do not need the lonely planet guidebook If you want to read something before you go you can look at guidebooks at a public library. Then you also can get advice for cheap hostels. But you can also find cheap places without reading books. There is a hotel information at the airport in Beijing where they have maps and can book hostels. But they do not know the really cheap places. But hose places are found by asking other backpackers, or the people coming at the end stop of the airport bus offering hostels, or by reading the lonely planet guidebook. The cheap places are often a bit outside the central Beijing square, so you need to ride a bus for about 30 minutes, but it interesting to see different parts of the city and to try the public transport which sometimes is very crowded - a backpack can be difficult to get on the bus in rush hours. If you find it difficult and time consuming to find a hostel located in a small or unknown suburb street you always can take a cheap richaw the first time. But the central and a bit more expensive hotels are very easy to find. A few cheap hostels can be for Chinese only.
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