[2] In the early 1920s, Haslund joined a group led by a Danish physician named Carl Krebs, who aimed to establish a dairy farm in northern Mongolia, close to the Russian border.

Fascinated by the Mongol way of life, Haslund remained in Inner Mongolia for the following years, e.g. joining Sven Hedin for the Sino-Swedish Scientific Expedition of the late 1920s.

A first team, consisting of anthropologists, botanists, geographers, and zoologists would work during 1948 and 1949 in Afghanistan, from Nuristan in the east to Herat in the west, under his leadership.

This would extend scientific knowledge to the south-east of the Pamirs and Iran explored respectively by Ole Olufsen in 1896-7 and C. G. Feilberg in 1936.

A new leader was appointed in 1950 but the rest of the plan for the expedition was never accomplished due to the political situation from 1950 onwards.