Villages In Mainland China.. Which Ones?

Well other than the Forbiddan City, go to Gui Lin, it is beutuful, and make shure to take one of the boat tours, it is amazing. As for sanitary condionds, dont use the public bathrooms, watch for pick pockets, keep aware of who is around you, the cops will help you with directions. bring a bottle of water with you. this is just basic travel tips. this is just my experance, ask a travel agent to give you some ideas, Xi'an and the great wall are good things too. the Great Wall is a must

What do you mean by villages? If its your first visit to China, stick to big cities, plenty to see.

China is different in any way, also for tourists, difficult to tour by yourself without speaking the language and knowing the culture.

It will be complicated enough for you if you are there the first time, so stick to big cities.

Beijing
Xian
Guilin
Yunnan area

Suchuan area

Take into account weather, winter is very cold in Beijing.

Buy good book about touring in China, when you arrive to any city, you will find tourist like you and will get many advices, so leave your tour plans flexible, you can book flights, take trains, book hotels all from within China, no need to book from abroad.

China is a huge country.... Over the last few years I have spent stretches of up to 3 months travelling there, and just came back a week ago from two weeks (one in Shanghai, one in Beijing). 

Do you know what region you will be in? Some really great places that are not travelled to by westerners very often are Fung Huang (dragon city), and Li Jiang. But both are several days travel from either Shanghai or Beijing.

If you are entering from Hong Kong Gui Lin is great.

There are no safety concerns in China that you wouldn't have in Little Rock, In fact you would feel less safe in Chicago, or Detroit... There are police, army, security personnel everywhere.