A novel chromatic dispersion (CD) monitoring technique based on asynchronous amplitude sampling (AAS) is proposed for a higher modulation format and higher rate system. The dispersion and other impairment factors can be separated with the definition of monitoring parameter M. A 400 Gbit/s 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) system is built using Optisystem13.0 beta software. Simulations of CD monitoring technique for different bandwidths of sampling Gaussian filter, optical signal to noise ratios (OSNRs) and duty cycles are investigated, and the tolerance is also discussed. Simulation results show that the method can be less affected by noise, and a higher accuracy of 600 ps/(nm·km) can be achieved. The technique supports a wide range of data traffic and enhances operation flexibility of optical networks.