It is like the 1990s' long-running American TV series ER, but the emergency room is moveable. And, everything that happens in the series is real - no script and no acting.

On Call 120, a documentary-based TV show on pre-hospital emergency medicine, follows ambulances in Shanghai.

The series is named On Call 120, as 120 is the emergency telephone number for medical services on the Chinese mainland.

The 12-episode show was premiered on Monday on Shanghai-based Dragon TV. Each episode is 72 minutes long, and the crew follows three ambulances to record their daily activities.

Li Jing, the chief director of On Call 120, says the aim of the series is to focus on Healthy China 2030, a national guide for public health careers released by the central government.

Li says more than 500 "missions" were recorded in three months of shooting, and 72 stories were finally included in the TV show.

She says the show not only reflects the medical practitioners' lives and their devotion to duty but also promotes medical knowledge.

"We also wanted to show people's values as well as their attitude to life and death," she says.

"We did not want to deliberately arouse emotions. But we wanted to reflect a positive energy with the true picture."