How to create empty Git repository and clone it locally

Useful if you have ssh access to some server and want to keep your origin repo there and push changes to it.
atoe@server:~/gitrepos/testrepo$ git config --global user.name atoe
atoe@server:~/gitrepos/testrepo$ git config --global user.email atoe@my.domain
atoe@server:~/gitrepos/testrepo$ git init --bare
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/users/atoe/gitrepos/testrepo
# verify the config
atoe@server:~/gitrepos/testrepo$ git config --list
user.name=atoe
user.email=atoe@my.domain
core.repositoryformatversion=0
core.filemode=true
core.bare=true
# now on local machine
$ git clone atoe@server:~/gitrepos/testrepo
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/atoe/work/testrepo/.git/
warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.
By the same token you can create origin on your local machine but synchronise it in Dropbox.