Authorities in central China put an end to a night cycling craze among university students riding from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng for soup dumplings.

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.

An online invite for a group bike ride in search of good dumplings proved so popular in China, that it brought some roads to a standstill.

Tens of thousands of students rode their bicycles to embark on a 50-kilometre night journey from their campuses in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan province to the neighbouring city of Kaifeng.

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.