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Through the use of the word “barren” in Hong Kong’s landscape descriptions by travellers and colonists, this article examines how the absence of tropical forest and its multiple interpretations evolved throughout the nineteenth century. While for precolonial visitors, the barren aspect of the island questioned the land’s fertility, to the first settlers, it became the source of numerous environmental anxieties threatening the colonial enterprise and later justifying a long and expensive reforestation program. These deep landscape transformations allowed colonists to condemn the Chinese backward and unproductive vernacular practices while legitimizing British occupation. As the Empire’s domination grew and the image of China deteriorated, Hong Kong’s colonial founding myth increasingly contrasted the precolonial “barren rock” with the success and superiority of British civilization.