They arrived in huge numbers on shared bikes after pedaling 30 miles in the evening chill, pumped by the adrenaline of youth and the thrill of embarking on a spontaneous adventure with friends.

It started as a social media quest for breakfast dumplings, but ended with thousands of cyclists bringing traffic gridlock between two cities in central China. What should have been a boost to the ancient city of Kaifeng’s economy backfired when the trend went viral - tens of thousands on rented bikes cycled through the night from nearby Zhenghou.

Nighttime bike rides to Kaifeng, an ancient city in central China's Henan province known for its historic sites and soup dumplings, have been all the rage among college students in the nearby provincial capital Zhengzhou.

Police in central China imposed traffic curbs at the weekend to halt a viral craze in which thousands of university students borrowed share bikes to ride overnight to the city of Kaifeng in search of breakfast.