While Hangzhou's well-heeled citizens often took to the water to escape summer heat, boats also served as the equivalent of pay-by-the-hour motels for assignations, which may be the story here.
Despite condemnation of Johnson's street-fighter tactics and of bouts that the press called "freak shows", there was no shortage of takers for ringside seats or for tickets to see his motion pictures (the turn-of-the-century equivalent of pay-per-view).
Spending time in church to gain a place has become the religious equivalent of paying cash for honours.
Expert View Anand Shukla, Daycare Trust "For many parents, the cost of childcare over the summer holidays is the equivalent of paying for a family holiday abroad.
She said the 17% pay gap for full-time work was the equivalent of paying men for the whole year while paying women only until today, which the society is marking as Equal Pay Day.
We're not talking about the equivalent of paying for the next chapter of a book; it's more like paying a few bucks extra for the adjectives, unless you want to wait a long time for them to "unlock".
Though, they don't frown that much, since they fined Beal a mere $15,000, which for a professional basketball player is the equivalent of paying for one team meal, minus gratuity.
On a $5 million stock option profit an executive would owe $1.9 million in taxes, but if the tax is delayed for three decades, as this technique provides, it is the equivalent of paying about 8 cents on the tax dollar owed.
GDANSK, POLAND — For fans, the opening nights of the European Championship quarterfinals have been the equivalent of paying top dollar for a theater show in which half the leading cast members fail to show.
